When I think of women of faith in the scriptures, I often think of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Sarah had to practice faith many times throughout her life. For example, Sarah was related to Abraham through family bloodlines before they married. When Abraham and Sarah entered foreign lands, she was asked to claim this as her relationship to Abraham and ignore her claim as his husband. This protected Abraham from death at the hands of the government. Sarah was required to have faith the Lord would protect her marriage in these circumstances. And the Lord did.
Sarah was again called upon to exercise faith when Abraham went to rescue Lot from the kings of the land. Since he was captured by kings, Lot was undoubtedly under guard by large armies of men. Yet Abraham only had his servants with which to rescue him. Abraham was a very wealthy man and would have commanded a large number of servants. Yet I can’t help but doubt he commanded a number equal to or greater than the armies of the kings of the land. Yet he went forth to rescue Lot.
Imagine the faith Sarah would need to have to trust the Lord would protect her husband and his men in this rescue mission. Military tactics are quite different today than they were in Sarah’s time. Nevertheless, it still stands true that numbers make a difference. Sarah would have known this. Abraham, being a righteous man, undoubtedly discussed his intentions with Sarah before going. Sarah would have known the power of the hand of God. I believe she trusted God and supported Abraham’s mission.
There are many other times that Sarah practices faith throughout her life. But I wish to turn now to the one that catches my attention most. This is the faith Sarah demonstrated throughout the many times she was asked to move with Abraham.
Sarah, then called Sarai, was married to Abraham before he left the land of Ur. Through The Book of Abraham in The Pearl of Great Price, we learn there was an attempt to sacrifice Abraham in the land of Ur because he believed in the true god. The land was a wicked land. Sarah must have held great faith in God in order to support Abraham in his faith in God.
Abraham’s family was a wealthy one in this land as well. Yet Abraham decided to leave the land anyway. Imagine the faith Sarah would need to have in order to forsake this wealth and travel with Abraham into the wilderness. It would have taken faith in Abraham and faith in God. Sarah had that faith and left with Abraham.
Their travels eventually took them to Egypt, where Abraham gained a great deal of wealth and prestige. Again Abraham chose to leave this life of prestige. Sarah again showed her faith as she went with him. And she does so every time Abraham forsook the things of the world to pursue the things of God.
There is a lot we can learn from this faith Sarah shows. What stands out to me, however, is that Sarah showed she trusted God and not the wealth of the world. This is an important lesson for us to learn. The things of this world dwindle with time. We have seen that the wealth generated by the stock market can collapse overnight. Those who hold great worldly wealth can lose it in the blink of an eye. Many have.
Another worldly good we can trust in is science. But we have found the scientific truths we know today can be proven wrong tomorrow. An example is the once proven fact that Pluto was a planet. Now the world claims it as merely a planetoid.
We can have faith that the pleasures of the flesh can provide us happiness. But these pleasures can be denied us easily through a paralyzing accident.
But when we put our faith in God, we will find the true happiness. We will find that, as Sarah did, we will go where He wants us to go. We will have the faith to leave behind worldly wealth. We will have the faith to leave behind worldly security. We will have the faith to leave behind worldly prestige. Sometimes doing so brings back the wealth, security, and prestige of the world as it did with Abraham and Sarah. But it doesn’t always bring us these fickle things. Yet we will always find this faith leads us to godly and eternal wealth, security, and prestige.
Abraham and Sarah knew this godly and eternal wealth, security, and prestige. They would never have received such blessings had they ignored the call of God. Had they walked their paths of comfort and left behind the paths of God, they would have forever travelled the roads of the wicked land of Ur. Abraham would have been sacrificed to the gods of Ur. Sarah would have lost her husband and never known her posterity.
We need to learn to trust in God and follow the paths He gives us. This is the lesson of the life of Sarah. Take it to heart and try to live the kind of life she did.
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