What do we fear most? Have you taken inventory in prayer lately? Good news. I am not as afraid of some things as I used to be. One older survey said the second greatest fear of respondents was death. What came in first? Public speaking. As we have observed, this means some people would rather be the person in the casket than the one who is speaking at a funeral.
Even a person of great faith like Abraham sometimes acted in fear. In this story, for fear that he would lose his life, he was willing to give up his wife. Am I the only one shaking my head about this? What was Abraham thinking when he told her to say she was his sister? This is the second time he has done this to protect himself. Not everything the great patriarchs did is exemplary for us. The story is more descriptive than prescriptive.
The ancient world was surely a dangerous place to live and move. Still, given God's promises to Abraham, we would like to see his faith translate into his decisions about his family. "Fear makes cowards of us all." This was a flaw in Abraham's character which he later passed on to his son Isaac. In prayer meeting last week I walked in as Sarah John sang my mom's song, "Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him. How I've proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh for grace to trust him more." We can trust God with our lives and our families. Will we?
