Genesis 20

Genesis Chapter 20

Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.
(Gen 20:9-11)

As believer’s we are called by God to be salt and light. It is not only our great duty as believer’s to be lights in the darkness, and salt to preserve; it is also a great privilege! When we fail to be influences for Christ, then we end up being stains on the name of Christ. This is what happend to our good friend Abraham.

As we have been looking at the life of Abraham and learning lessons about faith, you may have noticed that some of his greatest failures came about as a result of FEAR. Fear is one of the greatest enemies of faith. Over and over in the Psalms we hear David echoing the thought, “I will not fear, I will trust in you”. That tells us that fear and faith are exclusive of one another. When we trust in the Lord, our fear is driven away; but when we allow ourselves to live in fear, our faith is destroyed. Abraham had a choice when he entered Gerar. He could trust God to protect him, (after all God HAD promised to make a nation out of him, right?) Or he could be fearful and try and protect himself.

This is the chief way that fear works to kill our faith. When fear rises up within us, our normal reaction is to try and protect ourselves. When we do this we remove God from the place of controlling our lives, and we attempt to control them. In other words, we stop walking in the Spirit and start walking in the flesh.

When Abraham did this, he stopped being a “blessing to all nations” and became a CURSE! Look at the way Abimelech reacts, He just wants Abe to go away and stop making life tough. The same is true for us. When we are walking by faith, living lives controlled by the Spirit, we are a blessing to everyone around us. But, the moment we become afraid of our circumstances, and take things into our own hands to protect ourselves, we end up hurting everyone around us. When we live to protect ourselves, the last thing on our minds is the needs of others. Let’s learn a lesson from Abe: Whenever we find ourselves afraid because of the circumstances we are in, trust the Lord! Whatever you do, don’t lean to your own devices to “get out” of a tuff spot. It never ends up good for ANYONE involved!