Bible in a Year, Day 8: When You Are Faithless, He Is Faithful

Today's reading

Today's reading is Genesis 12, where Abram goes down to Egypt during a famine and fear begins to make his decisions.

It will happen that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me, but they will save you alive. Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you.”

(Genesis 12:12-13, WEB)

Reflection

Abram had received an amazing promise from God, and then hard times came. A famine hit the land, and as Pastor Jack Graham tells it, both God's promise and Abram's faith were tested. On the road to Egypt, fear took over his thinking.

So Abram hatched a plan: tell them she is your sister. Graham does not soften it. As he put it, "This was a survival tactic, and it was selfish and cowardly." Abram hoped the deception would save his own skin.

The lie did not protect anyone. Graham points out that it endangered Abram's wife, his calling and the people around him. Sarah was taken into Pharaoh's palace, and Pharaoh's house fell under plague until the truth came out. The man chosen to bless the nations had become a source of a curse.

That is why Graham says, "Lies unravel what god is building." God spoke the world into being with words of truth, so a lie works against what he makes. In Graham's words, "Truth creates. Lies destroys." Lies promise to preserve us, but they wound the people we love, break trust and bend reality.

Maybe you are carrying a lie of your own, one you told long ago or one you told today. You may have told it just to get by, and now it is eating away at your peace. Graham offers this hope: "God's grace can restore what your lie and deceit has destroyed." Jesus is the truth, and when we trust him, he breaks the power of sin and the hold of our lies (John 14:6).

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(1 John 1:9, WEB)

Graham admits that truth is costly, and that lies will cost far more. When you tell the truth even when it hurts, you are joining with the God who is truth.

Take it with you

• Where is fear shaping your plans right now? Ask what a faith-led choice would look like there.
• Is there a lie, old or new, that you need to name honestly before God?
• Whom might your honesty protect this week?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you are the truth, and you know the places where fear has led me to bend it. Forgive me for the lies I have told to protect myself, and for the people they have hurt. I turn away from them and bring them to you. Cleanse me, restore what I have damaged, and give me courage to speak honestly even when it costs me. Fill my heart with your truth. Amen.