So, I'm making my way back. Back to my faith, back to my roots, back to my calling. In doing that, I have made a committment to read (or actually listen) to the entire bible by the end of the year. This morning's passages included the following scriptures:
Abraham introduced his wife, Sarah, by saying, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah and had her brought to him at his palace. But that night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are a dead man, for that woman you have taken is already married!” But Abimelech had not slept with her yet, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Didn’t Abraham tell me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘Yes, he is my brother.’ I acted in complete innocence! My hands are clean.”
Genesis 20:2-5 NLT
As I was listening, and preparing for the day, I realized there was a lesson for me in this old testament scripture. You see, this is not the first time Abraham lied about Sarah being his "sister", it happened back in Genesis 12 too. That was before God changed Abraham's name from Abram, it was also before God made his covenant with Abraham. So after powerful encounters with God, Abraham is choosing to lie about Sarah being his "sister" again, beacuse of fear.
Here's the beauty of this lesson, you see, I, too, tend to act on my fears, making rash decisions, not trusting God for the outcome. And I usually find myself doing this because I created the messy situation. It was my own doing. I can still hear these words ringing in my head from my childhood "You made your bed, now you must lie in it." Did you hear those too?
What I noticed is that both times that Abraham created that messy situation - God stepped in. God didn't stand back with His arms crossed, and a stern look, waiting to see how Abraham was going to explain this one....nope, He rescued Abraham. And you know what else, God didn't reprimand him for the transgression either.
I had to soak all of that in this morning, because I have created more messy situations than I care to acknowledge and usually, I am grabbing a shovel and doing my best to dig my way out, only to have created a deeper mess.
So this morning, I laid down my shovel, and found myself resting in the arms of my Heavenly Father, knowing He sees me and He will continue to provide for me. He is the God of my messes. He's yours too.
