Abraham is here looking at circumstances rather than the Lord. As he entered Abimelech’s territory, he made a judgment that the fear of God was not there. Oh, how many times we limit God! Abraham thought that the limit of God’s protection was limited by people!
God has promised to protect us no matter what type of people we are among. But Abraham relied on his own ingenuity and trickery rather than on the Lord. Likewise we must beware – for many times we find ourselves doing the same. We need to learn to rely only on the Lord and not the cunningness of human dealings. Believers must learn to live honestly, speak honestly and trust Him honestly. Too often we scheme and mimic the business and social intrigues of the world which leads to compromising behaviors such as Abraham was involved.
Abraham here seems to have forgotten God’s promise to make of Abraham a great nation. How could the Lord have done that if He had allowed Abraham to be killed? So our failures stem from the same source, we forget the promises of God for our lives. If we do not keep His promises before us; then we begin to rely on our thinking and fail as Abraham did.
But the beautiful part of this story is that after Abraham failed and acknowledged that failure, he prayed and was instrumental in the healing of Abimelech’s household. God still used Abraham. Failure does not mean forsaken.
Lord, forgive us for the times when we rely on our thinking and scheming thereby failing to simply trust Your Word. Thank You that you do not forsake us even when we fail, but continue to use us in spite of our failures.
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