Dear Royalty,
Sometimes, a promise from God can feel more like a cruel joke than a comfort. When you are staring at a situation that looks completely dead, dried up, or long past its expiration date, being told to “have faith” can feel entirely out of touch with reality. If you have ever faced an impossibility and felt a cynical chuckle rise up in your chest, you are in good company.
We meet Sarah in Genesis 18, standing inside the flap of a dusty desert tent. She is eavesdropping on a divine visitor who is telling her husband that she will bear a son within a year. And in that quiet, hidden space, the 90-year-old matriarch does the most human thing possible: she laughs to herself.
It wasn’t a joyful giggle. It was a defensive laugh born out of years of unanswered prayers, deep societal shame, and a heavy shield of cynicism meant to protect her heart from ever being disappointed again (I mean…). Her laugh said what many of us secretly whisper: “That is simply too good to be true.”
But Sarah’s story reveals a profound spiritual truth: God specializes in promises that are so wildly beyond human logic that they force us to choose between the safety of our cynicism and the vulnerability of our faith.
When God called attention to Sarah’s hidden chuckle, the conversation exposed a massive gap between how we view our problems and how God views His power. It was a direct clash of perspective:
- Sarah’s focus was on her biology and her husband’s old age. She was 90. Abraham was nearly 100. Her womb was physically dead. She was looking at the undeniable, factual limitations of the human body and concluding that the story was over.
- God’s focus was on His own limitless power. He completely ignored the biological clock and reframed the entire situation with one timeless, rhetorical question: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”(Genesis 18:14).
By shifting the spotlight away from her circumstances and back onto Himself, He was reminding her that the laws of nature do not bind the One who created nature.
Faith doesn’t ask us to pretend our reality isn’t difficult or that our limitations aren’t real. Sarah was old. Her body was past the age of childbearing. But faith enters the picture when we stop letting our limitations have the final word. It happens when we realize that God isn’t looking at our lack of resources; He is looking at His own infinite supply.
Remarkably, God didn’t revoke the promise just because Sarah let out a skeptical laugh. He didn’t pack up His bags and look for someone with “better faith.” Instead, He gently exposed her fear and then held steady to His promise. (Tbh, I struggled with believing God can work past our doubts sometimes.)
Fast forward one year. The tent flaps are thrown open, and the desert air is filled with a sound no one ever expected to hear: a baby’s cry. God did exactly what He said He would do.
Look at how Sarah’s language completely transforms in Genesis 21:6:
“God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
The secret, defensive laugh inside the tent became a public, roaring laugh of pure triumph outside the tent. The very name they gave the baby Isaac literally means “He laughs.” Every single time Sarah called her son’s name for the rest of her life, she was reminded of how God took her deepest doubt and turned it into her greatest joy.
What Are You Laughing At?
What promise are you holding onto today that feels “too good to laugh” at?
- A restoration of a broken relationship that seems too far gone?
- A dream that you feel you’ve aged out of achieving?
- A breakthrough in a cycle of struggle that has bound you for years?
It is okay if your first instinct is to wonder how. Even the heroes of the Bible struggled to bridge the gap between what they saw and what God said. But don’t let your defensive laugh keep you inside the tent.
Step out into the open. Let God confront your limitations with His infinite strength. Because when God makes a promise, He isn’t looking for your perfect, unwavering capacity, He is just looking for your willingness to let Him have the last laugh.
The One He made to Laugh Again
Paulina Sharon Boye
November 10, 2026
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