GodSprings - February 06, 2016

Do I Have Memory As An Antidote?

and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. Genesis 20:2 (NIV)

I love watching steeplechase. It is a distance horse race in which competitors are required to jump diverse fence and ditch obstacles. But every time all the horses do not jump all the hurdles in front of them. Sometimes when a horse is learning how to jump over fences, it comes to one that it refuses to jump. It sticks its ears back and its nose down; it digs its hooves in, and will not jump. What do the riders do in those circumstances? They walk the horse around for a while to calm it down, and then they take it right back to the same fence. If necessary they do it over and over again until finally the horse sails over the fence, as it should.

If you have been in the journey of GodSprings with me, you are about to experience a strange sense of déjà vu. Previously, we looked at a very similar account in Genesis 12:10-20. In that passage, Abraham and Sarah devised a scheme to avoid problems with Pharaoh in Egypt. Abraham asked his wife to lie and tell the Pharaoh that she was his sister. Now, eight chapters later, the names and places are changed but the results are nearly identical. You may ask if they are identical why take up the same issue again. The reason we take up this second account is because it speaks to an issue that is relevant to all of us: recurring sin. Here, we see Abraham making the same mistake again.

Why did Abraham repeat the same mistake again? He was concerned about his own personal safety. He feared that because of Sarah’s beauty he would be killed, and she would be taken as a wife by violence. Quite simply, Abraham feared man more than he feared God. In Matthew 10:28 Jesus said, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” We can all find ourselves in situations where we are motivated by fear. Yet, God longs for us to exercise faith in Him. As the old adage says, “Those that fear God most are least afraid of men.” 

Abraham needed to learn that God can be trusted to take care of him. He needed to learn that lesson well, because there would be an exam, a test of his faith, coming up (sacrificing Isaac). God would take him back to the same hurdle over and over again, so that he would be prepared to jump over it with flying colors. 

This is also true for us. Today, we may feel like giving up. Repeated failures always tempt us to give up. But that is exactly what the devil wants us to do! Therefore, focus on the goal and not the obstacles. Let us remind ourselves that growth takes time. The best example for this are children – when they first learned to walk. They fall often. Sometimes they bang their heads. Other times they cut their lip. But one thing is certain – they keep getting up.

We fail to learn from the lessons of the past because we let fear rule our thinking. Memory is the best antidote with which to fight fear. If Abraham would have remembered how God handled the situation in Egypt and how he was protected, he would have made better choices.

We need that same kind of focus as we learn to walk by faith. There will be falls. There will be times of frustration but I need to keep getting up! The Great Lent is an invitation for us to remember that great sacrifice and love on the cross. As we enter into yet another 50 days of lent and fasting from tomorrow God is telling us if we have drifted, come back to the Him. If we have sinned, confess it. If we have fallen, get back up and begin again. The life is worth pursuing with every ounce of strength we have.