A great blog sermon I found by Joe Miller:

Joe Miller's

Living In The AND

Genesis 25: 20-21, 26
Now Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to be his wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, AND Rebekah his wife conceived... Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

Read the passage carefully. Did you catch it? The simple word AND covers 20 years of waiting for God to fulfill His promise and answer Issac's prayer.

Can you relate to Issac's situation?
Here is a man, the object of a generational promise from God, whose son will become the father of a great nation. At age 40 he prays to God and pleads, "YHWH, please allow my wife to become pregnant."

AND 1 month goes by with no answer...
AND 6 months goes by with absolute silence...
AND a year goes by while Rebekah remains barren...
AND 2 years pass with nothing...
AND 5 years pass with no answer to the prayer...
AND 10 years lapse yet God has not kept His word...
AND 19 years go by as Issac waits for the hidden promise...

Have you ever experienced this kind of pain?
"God, I prayed AND you have not healed my loved one?"
"God, my heart longs for a child AND you have not allowed me to become pregnant?"
"God, you have promised me hope, AND yet I live in pain?"
"God, I have failed you AND maybe I just don't deserve your love... do I?"
"God, I pray AND are you don't answer... are you punishing me?"
"God, I am weak AND I pray in weakness... do I no longer deserve an answer from You?"

AND finally, after 20 years of anxious tears, the rabbit dies... the test strip turns pink... AND Rebekah is pregnant with her promise!

So many years, so many emotions, so many questions and all we read in the Scripture is the single conjunction AND.

Are you living in the AND?
This passage says nothing of a man's emotional impotence during the unresolved AND.
We experience no connection to a woman's heart lost in the shame of AND.

The silence of Scripture regarding Issac and Rebekah's 20 year struggle is not because God cares nothing for this period of their life. The Scripture simply says, "AND she conceived" so that we, the reader of history, will keep our hearts focused on the absolute hope of God's promise that never falls short.

Your situation is unique. There is no passage of Scripture that can adequately describe your pain or encompass your longing, but this story of Issac and Rebekah describes perfectly God's unfailing covenant-love that will see you, and me, through the AND.

God has promised you life eternal, never regreat living in the AND!