Last night I had a dream, I don’t always remember dreams so when I do it makes me think. In the dream I was working at Starbucks again and scheduled to go to work in the afternoon. I slept past when I was supposed to wake up then had some big family dinner (like my entire extended family) and I didn’t want to go into work. Ya know how dreams jump around sometimes? Well, that’s what happened. Next thing I knew I was at this dinner. I knew that I needed to call work to let them know I wouldn’t be coming. I headed out to the hall with my phone and the whole time I was trying to think of what excuse* I would use to get out of this. “Should I say I’m not feeling well, I kinda did have a headache earlier… my family needs me… what do I say?” Then I had the fleeting thought, uhm, tell them the truth?
Is telling the partial truth a lie?
When I woke up I thought, well, that was weird. But then I started thinking about the dream a little more and wondering why I remembered so much of it. When I was a teenager or even early 20s, coming up with a quick half-truth to get out of something was easy and a natural response. As I pondered this dream I felt like the Lord was revealing a heart attitude that I might default to without even realizing it. I prayed and thanked God for opening my eyes to this and made a mental note to be aware of this response, I journaled the dream and then started my bible time for the day.
I opened up to Genesis where I’d left off and read Genesis 18. I recommend you go read the chapter, or at least verses 1-15 for context.
The Lord tells Abraham that Sarah will have a child. She is in the tent, they are outside, she overhears this conversation and laughs, “hah! Yea right, I’m going to have a child after all this time.” The Lord asks Abraham why she laughed and said, “is anything too hard for the Lord?” Sarah denied that she laughed, because she was afraid.
Now, jump over to chapter 20 of Genesis (or read chapters 18-20) and read verses 1-5. Again, Abraham and Sarah lied about who she was (technically they told a half-truth) because they were afraid.
Isn’t God so faithful? The dream I had last night isn’t the same situations as what we’ve seen in these scriptures. But the heart attitude is. Fear. Fear of what people will say, what they will think, what they will do, how they will respond, disappointing, and lack of trust.
What if we trusted God to provide and take care of us despite the outcome and without fear of what others would say or think?
Sarah’s instinct and everything that “made sense” told her that she couldn’t have a child. It “made sense” to walk into a new land saying she was his sister because of fear of what would happen to them if they didn’t do that. It “makes sense” to need an excuse for whatever it is we can’t or don’t want to do.
I think God is wanting to take us to a new level of trusting Him. Maybe you’re already at that level and you can’t relate to what I’m saying, great.
How do we do this, then? How do we get to this place of trust? First, recognize it. Let the Lord open up your eyes to places that you may have subconsciously hidden from Him.
I was talking with a friend this week and we were reflecting on the goodness of God and how He sees everything. Even the things that I think I need to fix or hide or work out before I bring to Him, He already sees it. The things I’m too prideful (or humiliated) to submit to Him, He has already seen it all. So those excuses that we plan on coming up with are unnecessary. Let’s just humble ourselves and trust Him.
Second, we need to get in the Word and let the Lord speak to us and teach us. He is faithful to reveal these things to us as we’ve seen by the scriptures used as an example today.
What’s the point? What’s the take away from all this? Sarah didn’t believe that God could cause her to have a son. Sarah lied about her reaction because she was afraid. Abraham and Sarah told a half-truth because they were afraid. In my dream my automatic reaction was to tell a half-truth because of fear of disappointing or not wanting to tell the truth.
God caused Sarah and Abraham to have a son. God blessed Abraham and Sarah and land was given to them by the people they were afraid of. We don’t have to give excuses, “let your yes be yes and your no be no” (Matthew 5:37).
Reflecting: Spend some time asking the Lord to reveal heart attitudes that may need to be changed. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal other examples that may speak more to your situation (Adam and Eve and their hiding in the garden. Adam blaming Eve. Eve blaming the serpent. Etc.) Ask the Lord to reveal, in the moment, situations where there is an opportunity to trust.