I want to trust God fearlessly in the face of these uncertain times. Yet more and more I face with my own limitations, my own struggle to keep my eyes on Jesus.You can be a man or woman of faith and still struggle to trust God. All of us need the power of the Holy Spirit to truly trust God. On our own it is impossible.
Developing fearless trust in uncertain times comes down to adjusting our vision.
Abraham was known for his faith. Abraham—the man who walked with God, who received God’s promise, whose obedience to God did not waver even as he prepared to sacrifice his own son—struggled to trust God just like we sometimes do.
Genesis 20 records Abraham’s move from the place he had lived for about 20 years to Gerar, a Philistine nation. As Abraham entered an unfamiliar place, it didn’t take long for him to encounter some uncertainty.
Listen to his words when he met Abimelech, king of Gerar: And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. Genesis 20:2 (ESV)
Abraham had tried this same strategy before (in Genesis 12). He struggled in the same way, told the same lie.
Why do we fall back into the same habits we know don’t work?
When I am battling lies of insecurity, why do I always pick up my phone and start scrolling, as if Instagram is going to this time cure me? Why do we turn to what we know hasn’t worked for us in the past and certainly isn’t going to work for us now?
Our vision needs to be daily realigned with the truth.
God appeared to the king in a dream and instructed him to return Sarah to Abraham, her husband, not brother. Abimelech expressed that he did not lay a finger on Sarah and released her at once.
When he encountered Abraham, he asked an interesting question. Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” Genesis 20:10 (ESV, emphasis added)
What did Abraham see? Or more importantly, what was blocking his view? Our vision affects where we’re going.
Colossians 3:2 instructs us: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Abraham certainly did not have God (or His promises) in view when he lied and failed to trust God.
Abraham had a pattern of lying to self-protect and not trusting God’s provision and protection. Yes, even Abraham—the one who we remember as righteous. But notice a simultaneous pattern throughout Abraham’s journey.
God is right there in every weak moment and in every place where Abraham (and every one of us) struggles to trust. He reveals our weakness, and He reveals Himself.
God has a pattern of bringing us back to the truth.
The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Genesis 13:14-16 (ESV, emphasis added)
And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Genesis 15:5 (ESV, emphasis added)
God protected Abraham and Sarah from the hands of King Abimelech, but ultimately, He protected His promise. Imagine for a moment if Abimelech had slept with Sarah. A cloud of doubt would hover over God’s plan to bring a Redeemer through Isaac, the child of Promise.
God is faithful to His promise, even when we are faithless.
2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
God has given us everything we need to fully trust Him. God has given us our sight through Christ. Think about it. We now see what the prophets longed to see. We have seen the love of God poured out at the cross.
Though we may lose sight of God from time to time, He never ever loses sight of us. He is faithful to draw our eyes back again and again to His promises if we’ll let Him.
As we turn our eyes daily towards God, we will regain our sight so that we can walk fearlessly into whatever tomorrow holds.
