In this week's episode, the third from the “Faith Full: Extraordinary Women of the Bible” series, we talk about how much time it requires before Jen goes down a rabbit trail and loses focus. AJ asks the listeners to grade Jen’s focus at the end of the podcast. 

Jokes aside… This week we talk about Sarah!

Abraham asked Sarah to do some things that were pretty far-fetched, such as asking her to pretend not to be his wife, so another man could take her into his home. 

But what we see is Sarah being commended for her faith, not in her husband's ability to protect her, but in God who was able, trustworthy, wise, and capable. Her faith in this strong God allowed her to submit to what Abraham asked her to do, knowing the ability of God to protect her.

And protect her He did. 

He sent an angel to look out for her, and all of heaven had Sarah’s back as she trusted God. 

We discuss how Sarah and Abraham were both imperfect humans and their faith was totally imperfect too.

Yet these two imperfect people, with imperfect faith were still given the gift and the blessing of being called the father/mother of the nations.

Likewise, when we exercise a little bit of trust, like Sarah did over and over through her story, God is drawn to it. He can't help but step in and do whatever it takes to keep us standing. We don’t know about you, but that fulfillment of faith incredibly encourages us and makes us want to step up with our faith!

We also share the role of laughter in Sarah’s story. Sarah first laughs with unbelief and cynicism in the Scriptures. Yet when God’s promise is finally fulfilled later in the story and Sarah gives birth to Isaac, she laughs again. And this time her laughter is one of joy. It's almost like she can laugh with joy because she realizes that God's promises are true.

In fact, Isaac means “he who laughs”. The theme of laughter goes throughout Sarah's life and all that she went through, including her disbelief and her belief. 

Our question for you this week is: “How do we turn our laughter from skeptical unbelief to a laughter of joy?”

Is there a circumstance or situation you are laughing in cynicism over? If so, ask yourself, “How can I turn this unbelief into joy?” 

The promises of God are powerful. They're significant. And we need to grip onto them just as much as Abraham and Sarah did. 

Listener question of the week:

“What was your first impression of each other?” was the juicy question of the week.

We gave our honest answer! And also show how much we really do trust each other and balance each other out! 

Thank you for sending in these questions for us to answer on the podcast. If you have a question, we’d love to answer it!  It can be super silly or a little bit deeper. It doesn't matter! Just email us at hello@thesojoacademy.com.