By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Hebrews 11:11

Somewhere between God’s promise and its performance is the necessity of faith, or the act of believing and acting on what God said. While God’s promises are a function of His covenant mercy towards man, the manifestation of those promises are often a function of our response to Him in faith. This means if no one believes the promises of God, there is no certainty the promises will manifest. Which is why Jesus asks: “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith in the earth?”

That God chose to limit Himself in this manner is rather humbling, knowing He could do all things by Himself. Yet He has elected to partner with humanity in achieving His purposes through the ages. We do know that God does exercise His Sovereignty and bring certain things to pass even when man does not know to ask or believe. But in fulfilling His eternal purpose of having man represent Him on earth, He continues to expect faith from us to bring things into manifestation.

All of this makes sense in the light of a partnership with God. The Bible says that believers are co-workers with God. If we are going to partner with God to do great works on earth, we must believe He can do what He promised. We must repose some level of trust or confidence in His willingness and capability to deliver on His promises. If we don’t trust Him, we cannot partner with Him. If we do not partner with Him, then our works will be limited to the things a man can achieve without God.

If we must receive God’s promises for our lives and experience His great plans for us, then we also must judge Him faithful. We must review His credentials, assess His capability, and come to the inerrant conclusion that He is faithful – the same conclusion that all the saints who walked with God came to. No matter how impossible it seems, we must embrace the reality of God’s promises and accept that He can bring them to pass in our lives, in our time, in our situation and context.

Sarah partnered with God to bring a promised child into the world by judging Him faithful. Although she initially doubted and laughed at the promise of a child in old age, she eventually believed when she considered and concluded that He must be capable of fulfilling the promise to give her a child at ninety-nine. She judged him faithful. As for me, I have already judged Him faithful on so many promises I have received, and the manifestations are unfolding everyday. What about you?