Slices
Prepare
What are your current worries and concerns? Why not jot them down now? Hear the invitation of God’s Word to you: ‘Cast all your anxiety on him [God] because he cares for you’ (1 Peter 5:7).
Bible passage
Abram in Egypt
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife.” Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.’
14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
17 But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. ‘What have you done to me?’ he said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, “She is my sister,” so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!’ 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.
Explore
After the dramatic opening to the chapter, and God’s amazing promises, everything threatens to fall apart immediately. Natural disaster, enforced migration, perceived threat from an alien regime and, perhaps most importantly, Abram’s flawed character all conspire to undermine God’s promised future. This is a recurring pattern in Abram’s story. Time and again, dramatic twists make us wonder whether God’s purposes will ever be fulfilled.
Psychologists tell us that we respond to perceived threat in one of five ways: fight, flight, freeze, fawn or flop. Fawning is defined as ‘people-pleasing, even to your own detriment’. This is Abram’s response to a threat that has not even been verified. He dissembles, placing his wife in danger to preserve himself. Pharaoh emerges from this story with better moral credentials than Abram.
This shows me that God’s call is not dependent on our character. Rather, character is formed over time as we learn to act in response to God’s call, and to trust him through all the unforeseen threats that could make us lose sight of his promises.
Respond
Pray: ‘Lord, you know me through and through. And still, you call me to walk the path of faith with you. As I follow you – and also, as I stumble or stray – please shape me to be the person you made me to be.’
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Esther 4,5; Luke 11
Pray for Scripture Union
Mission Partner Regeneration:Harrow asks for prayer for their new Schools Worker Rachel Sampath who started in March. Pray that she will settle in well and quickly re-establish good working relationships with the schools.
