It’s All Good

Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.” 

[Gn 20:6 ESV]

Now that’s a rather intriguing verse, don’t you think? Mind-boggling, to say the least. But what encouragement! To know that the Omnipotent God is for us—to keep us from sinning. He is not some hardened ogre watching and waiting for us to mess up. Especially when we don’t mean to. He wants to keep us from sinning; for when we sin, we sin against Him, The One most hurt and offended.

 Here, Abraham had deceitfully claimed his wife Sarah to be his sister (for the second time!). Abimelech, king of Gerar, was not aware that she was another man’s wife. God approached this pagan in a dream, warning him so that he might then choose to do the right thing and be spared judgment.

 There are two aspects to this verse that encouraged me. First, there are times when there is more to a situation than meets the eye. We approach it with “integrity of the heart”, unaware that it will lead us to sin. Thankfully, God sees our heart. That is when, I believe, the Holy Spirit convicts us, pricks our conscience to heed and change our course of direction. 

And the second is the fact that God is willing and able to help us in our weakness to avoid sin. As He said to Abimelech, “It is I who kept you from sinning against Me.” The Great I AM, Creator of the Universe, Parter of the Seas, Sovereign Warrior is . for . us !

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

 [Mt 26:41]

Jesus taught us to turn to God when tempted to receive power to overcome. He showed us what a holy life looks like, that our main line of defense is prayer. Calling upon the name of the Lord invokes the power of the Holy Spirit in order to defeat temptation. His brother James wrote that when we submit to God the devil flees from us. (Could that be where we get the saying, “run like the devil?”) 

May this thought encourage you to be empowered in your walk today, dear one. Whether in times of trial when we are vulnerable or times of plenty when we are comfortable. The tempter is always on the job--so is God. Turn to I Am in those times of tempting into deliberate sin and those times we become aware that we are unintentionally about to sin, when there's opportunity to choose to turn before it’s too late, that we may avoid hurting the God we love.