Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Comfortable With Who You Are? | Torah | Genesis 12:10-20

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Do you spend time worrying what people think of you, trying to look and act a certain way or telling white lies to make yourself look better? Tanya shares an example of Abram acting in such a way in Genesis 12:10-20 to emphasize how God calls believers to live in authenticity. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Passages: Genesis 12:10-20 Related episodes: What Are You Seeking? Discovering Your Personal Identity Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. We're exploring stories from the first books of the Bible. Right now, we're in Genesis. Hey, listeners, I'm excited to tell you about a new way to connect with 10-minute Bible talks in the new year. When you sign up for our brand-new 10-minute Bible Talks email newsletter, you're going to get a blessedly short email once a week.

and it's going to have guides on spiritual disciplines, inspiring challenges for you to grow. It's going to give you more background on the passages we cover, and there'll even be quick studies of Hebrew and Greek words. It will be the one email that asks nothing from you but gives you something instead. Each week will be a little different, and you're going to love the variety. So stop what you're doing, click the link in the show notes, and join us in your inbox. Now, let's hop into today's episode. Do you have an imposter that rides around with you?

My guess is you're saying no in your head. So let me dig a little deeper or ask in a different way. Do you ever talk about what you could have done if you had the time or really wanted to do it? Or are you cautious about what you say? So you're in good standing or you're liked? Do you share the vulnerabilities that won't really inflict you and hide the ones that will? Will you avoid confrontations and conversations that make you or other people feel uncomfortable? Or do you ever use sarcasm or clothes or your car or perfectionism or Facebook posts to present yourself to the world?

These didn't come out of nowhere, but it came mostly from my own list when someone asked me this question. My guess is that in a culture that values image and protects beliefs like ours does, you resonated with the least of those. Faithful Father Abram makes his debut as an imposter in Genesis chapter 12. He is so faithful and obedient to God, and the evidence is in what he's done. He left his home, his comfort, and his family to travel to a foreign land because God told him his offspring, which he didn't even have yet would inherit it someday. He risked everything practical and culturally good in his life for a hope and a dream rooted in the words of God. He must have loved God to obey and trust like this, and he must have known very much that God loved him.

But when Abram was traveling through Er, a famine came on the land, and he and Sarai, and by the way, I'm using those names because God had not yet given them their new names, Abraham and Sarah. Well, they escaped to Egypt. This was a common route of escape for people. They would take refuge in the territory surrounding the Nile when they couldn't find food in their own land. It was in this unfamiliar place, surrounded by new people and feeling uncomfortable in his

own skin that the imposter surfaced. Picking up in Genesis 1211, when he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife. I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife. Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake. Was Abram really doing this for her safety or for his?

Who's really going to benefit from this lie? Doubtfully, Sarai, who was taken into Faire's house, is one of his many wives. Was it a complete lie? A partial lie. Was it a good reason to lie? Sorai was Abram's half-sister, not super uncommon at the time, so maybe he was tapping into something that was partly true and just embellishing it a little. Overall, whatever kind of lie it is, a lot of people were hurt by it, and most of all,

Abram. Let me explain. Surai was obviously hurt. She was taken into a foreign palace to be used by a foreign king. The Egyptian suffered also because God caused a horrible plague to come on them when Pharaoh took her in. But Abram suffered the most because by channeling his imposter, he didn't have the opportunity to face the truth and just gained the incredible benefit of having worked through it with God in a way that could have changed him, that could have made him more aware of his vulnerabilities, and could have made him better equipped to fight the temptation of doing it again. God commands us not to lie, and we understand this because we know it hurts people, it creates chaos, and it distorts reality. Abram did a lot of good things, but he was also cunning, and when he felt

afraid or insecure, he resorted to that gift as an immediate solution to avoid the discomfort of sticking with the truth. For Abraham God had given him marriage and a beautiful wife, but she also happened to be his half-sister. Abraham could have just rested in that, but instead, he enhanced reality. We do lots of things to avoid the discomfort of facing the bare reality that we are helpless, weak, broken by sin. Imposturing keeps us from working through the underlying problems, and it stunts our spiritual development. No wonder God commands us not to lie.

But here's what I love about the story of Abram. He did this, specifically with Sorai, not once but twice, and yet he gets included in the Hebrews 11 chapter of people who faithfully endured and finished the race with God. He didn't get canceled from the Hall of Faith because of his doubts. Our imposter, the one who doubts that God really loves us just as we are, wants us to lie and deflect, and gives us a million reasons why it would be easier to live in the imposter skin. But the presence of Jesus calls us into the true reality.

Like a child learning to walk who looks backward and sees his mom before he falls on his face, we have the constant, unwavering presence of God with us, despite our failures. And the culture tells us to be true to ourselves. But that just makes us the center of our own universe. When we're true to God, we recognize our sin and our weakness and his ever-loving presence with us in it. The security and affirmation of being true to God allows us to live in authenticity. It lets us let go of our narcissistic.

quest for affirmation and approval. It lets us be comfortable with who we really are instead of adding to our image or making false ones. We don't need to take the easier path of enhancing our reality because we believe in the sovereignty of God. His plans and purposes are superior to ours, and his ability to accomplish them will always be superior to ours. Will you believe what God believes about you? Will you live not just in the big faith that he has your future, and you will you? your salvation covered. But in the daily faith that he has you covered, your meetings, your work, your friendships, basketball games, team tryouts, your outcomes, covered. He will either provide for you immediately or eventually, and it will be in a way that is better than anything we could have done.

Thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the TMBT newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week, and it will challenge you to grow, give you interesting. backgrounds on today's passage, plus a whole lot more. Click the link in our show notes to sign up and deepen your journey with Jesus.