What I find interesting is that God asked Abram to leave everything that he was familiar with and everything that was safe and secure. He was asked to leave his country, his land and his family. Then asked to go to a new land. Abram was obedient to God! On his journey to Canaan he was very spiritual. He sought the Lord even when building altars for the Lord. But when he stopped in Egypt he felt he had to have his wife lie about their marital status because he was afraid he would lose his life. Even though he was obedient to God and was spiritual with his walk, he struggled to trust God in scary situations.
As for me, we left youth ministry within the church. We left what we were familiar with to go to something brand new. We were obedient but it doesn't mean it's been easy. God has tested me and my faith and trust in him. Several times I have been in situations that seemed difficult or impossible. And God ask me to trust him. It's been a growing time while learning Trust. I have seen God work even in areas that I thought would end up as a disaster. It has helped me learn to Trust but I know I have a long ways to go.
I think of Abraham as being a man of such great faith, but yet he still had his flaws and we see that here in this chapter whenever he had his wife lie because he feared for his life when entering Egypt. You would think that he would have learned his lesson from this experience, but he does it again with Abimelech in chapter 20. I can’t judge Abraham too harshly because I know that there have been many times and situations in my life where I have failed and acted out of fear instead of faith. God’s still working on me. When choosing a song for today, I thought about Don’t Fear the People, but I think I’ll save that to go better with Acts 7. I’m not aware of a specific parody that ApologetiX has to match the next several chapters until Chapter 17 so I’m just going to share a general one each day until then.
Let’s start with La Bible.
https://youtu.be/mOSXNZFfYzw
Lots of lessons for us in today’s devotions – especially Sarai as a picture of what a Christian wife should be (1 Peter 3:4-6). She honored her husband even when he wasn’t walking in wisdom and God protected her. Not only that, but He prospered their family with flocks, herds and servants. Did Abram walk away from this smelling like a rose? Not hardly – one of the servants from Egypt was named Hagar who will break Abram’s heart as well as his family. We reap what we sow (Gal 6:7).
Love the insight from everyone on this chapter. My name, Sarah, comes from Sarai, wife of Abram. In my own life we are facing a big decision to move and it is scary and the outcome is unknown. Our lives are successful, we are confident where we are yet we feel called to move. We are praying and hopeful that it is what God is calling us to do.
Sarah, I am confident, as you cry out to God He will hear your voice and will open the right doors and close the ones that need closed.