The Process of Producing a Promise, by Rudolph W. McKissick, Jr.

They could not go to the temple and sow a seed and believe that the seed was going to make it happen. They could not simply and foolishly "name it and claim it" and it would come to pass. They had to participate in the production of the promise. They had to believe in the promise so much so that in spite of what had never happened for them before, they would not give up. They both had physiological odds against them. One lady was old and the other was barren. You could only know you were barren if there had been some attempts to get pregnant that kept failing. This time, a promise is made that what they had been attempting would come to pass. How awesome a faith that they would go back and do again what has never worked before, believing this time that it would work because they had been promised a different result. Get that picture. For the promise to come to fruition, it would take a process of intimate participation.

We live in this new day of fad theology and magic religion that has made for a generation of lazy Christians who want God to be, in the words of Harry Emerson Fosdick, their "cosmic bellhop" who skips down from glory and gives us what we want on a silver platter. I submit to you that living in the power of the Kingdom does not work that way. God leaves room for our participation in bringing about promises. We don't have the luxury of sitting at home and having things dropped in our life. God can do that if He so desires, but God more often than not leaves room for us to activate and exercise our faith by participating in the process of bringing the promise to pass. That production can come in many forms. Only you know what it is you should do to show God your faith in the promise. It could be something as simple as going and filling out the job application. Sowing seeds and having faith are a part of the economy of the Kingdom, but if all you do is sow a seed and then sit at home waiting on the blessing to fall in your lap, you have reduced God to a slot machine. Activate and exercise your faith. Even if you have tried that, whatever that may be, do it again, because this time it comes with a promise that it will happen for you in due season.