Genesis in Biblical Perspective:
The Gospel of Christ from Genesis –
"The Sin That So Easily Entangles"

Genesis 20

By Dr. Harry Reeder III

Genesis 20:1–14 says

[1] From there (the hills overlooking Sodom and Gomorrah which has now been destroyed) Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. [2] And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. [3] But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, "Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife." [4] Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, "Lord, will you kill an innocent people? [5] Did he not himself say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this." [6] 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. [7] Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours."

[8] So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. [9] Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done." [10] And Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you see, that you did this thing?" [11] Abraham said, "I did it because I thought, 'There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.' [12] Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. [13] And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, 'This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, "He is my brother."'"

[14] Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. [15] And Abimelech said, "Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you." [16] To Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated." [17] Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. [18] For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

The grass withers, the flower fades, the Word of God abides forever and by His grace and mercy may this His Word be preached for you.

Fifty-seven years brings a lot of changes in culture. As a preacher, there is a constant adjustment that has to be made in the contemporary popular language when you're searching for illustrations. For instance, there was a time I used to be able to preach about the Christian life, and I'd say, "Folks, you've got to slow this thing down from 78 to 33-1/3." Now how many of you know what I'm talking about? Okay, probably about ten percent of you. Of course, that was in the days of the long-playing albums that started at 78, went on down to 33-1/3, and by the way, life should be lived at 45. So it's amazing how all of these illustrations are changing. By the way, much of this is coming from technology today. It's really interesting, but the technology that really interests me, is this computer.

About ten years ago I went to the IT director of the church at Christ Covenant Charlotte, and I said, "Look, I think it's time for me to try to go into the 20th Century. Let's get a computer." So we did get one of those computer clones or whatever you call them, because we didn't want to spend much money. I thought "This may not work out for me" because I'm a fountain pen, 8-1/2 x 11 legal pad paper type of person. So I said, "Let me try it" and began to work on it. Now in getting computers, I learned a word and that was "default." Now that doesn't mean that's a default of you. There's a default that's there. It's something that it automatically goes back to. In fact, I've wished I could get control, alternate, shift in my life on more than one occasion. So when you default, it goes right back to where it started.

As I thought about this, that's exactly what you and I as Christians are always challenged with. There are moments in our lives when we default back to the old man, don't we? There are moments when we are spiritually vulnerable that we default back to the old man of self-reliance, self-exultation, self-gratification, of self, self, self, and sin, sin, sin. We default back there as it just grabs us at certain moments, moments of spiritual vulnerability. When I say you default back to the old man, some of us have some patterns of sin back there that we default back to in the old man. Maybe it's late at night. The light is off, in a closed room, in front of an Internet, visiting Internet sites you shouldn't be looking at. Maybe it's an email communication with someone you shouldn't be communicating with. Maybe it's a clandestine meeting. Maybe it's an addictive appetite and idolatry of that thing that I've hid that I go to that I think is going to numb my pain in life. Spiritual vulnerability and default not just to the old man, but there are certain default sins in our life that are repetitive, that we keep going back to.

That's where we are with Abraham right now. In Genesis 12 Abraham went down into Egypt because of a famine and he said, "You know, they may kill me to get to you, Sarah, so listen, you know that you're my half sister so let's take a half-truth and make a whole lie, and we'll tell them that you're my sister so that way I'll live if you'll do that for me." They did that and, of course, the Lord revealed to Pharaoh what he had done. Pharaoh rebuked Abraham and sent him out with gold, silver and female servants, which, by the way, wasn't such a good idea because one of those female servants was probably a woman by the name of Hagar, who in just a couple of chapters will get everybody in trouble, including Abraham and Sarah as they attempt to fulfill God's promise of a seed in the flesh with Hagar and the adulterous relationship there. So that's what Abraham did and now we have him doing the same thing but this time not with Pharaoh, but with Abimelech. This same situation is happening again but with another person.

Do you remember a great catcher for the New York Yankees by the name of Yogi Berra? After he finished catching, Yogi went into television. It was short-lived. Yogi, who was a marvelous catcher, was not much of a commentator. In fact, it wasn't long until he started coming out with these statements that today are actually called Yogi-isms. I remember his first one. He was on national television, and they ask him a question. He responded by saying, "Well, I'm just telling you, baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical." Another time he was asked to comment on his great partner on the New York Yankees, that great centerfielder, Mickey Mantle, who used to hit left handed and right handed. He said, "Yeah. That Mickey, he's amphibious. Not only that, he can hit from the right or the left side." Yet maybe the saying he is most famous for is when he said on national television, "Oh, my. This is déjà vu all over again." So he goes from Latin to English and he just keeps repeating himself.

That's kind of what we have here with Abraham – déjà vu all over again. It seems like he's doing it again. Now all of the critical commentators line up on this. They can't wait to get in line and say, "Now this is proof that the Bible is not the inherent Word of God. See? There's just that same old story that they've repeated again where they've just redone it a little bit, and this must be proof that this Bible isn't the Word of God." Yet I don't need all the critical Bible commentators' comments on this. Okay.

So that means you don't have any sins you repeat. Forget the critical Bible commentators. How about you? How about me? We look at Abraham and say, "Abraham, I can't believe you're doing this again." None of us have any sins we repeat in our life, right? There are moments when we are spiritually vulnerable in our walk with the Lord. We not only default back to the old man in the sin lifestyle, but we've got certain pet sins that we go back to that are kind of like our comfort food. We think, "Maybe this will get me by, numb me, make me feel okay." That's why I'm very grateful for this text, because in this text He gives us an insight into, perhaps, the chief element of vulnerability for the Christian in the default to patterns of sin.

Now let's take a look at this old déjà vu all over again, this repeat situation. Let's look, at our passage for this study in Genesis 20. First I want to put this in context. Two things have just happened in Abraham's life that is very significant. One thing that happened to Abraham was he had been given a promise from God that he and Sarah, no matter their age, are going to have a child. In the flow of space and time, we're right at the edge of Sarah's conception from which will come Isaac, from which will come Jacob, from which will come Judah, from which will ultimately come Jesus. We're right at the edge of a key moment in God's plan of redemption, and it's at this moment that Abraham decides to wander away from where he is, and you can kind of understand because of right below him, elevation about a thousand feet below him, this rich valley has now been turned into an absolutely desolated place. Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain have been utterly destroyed. In fact, it says that Abraham had looked from the hills and he had seen the smoke going up, and my guess is he didn't want to see this anymore so he decided to go south to the Negev.

When you read your paper today, and you're reading about the Palestinians, Israel and the discussion over an area called the Gaza, the Negev is the same place. This is going to become very famous in the life of Israel because it's going to become the dwelling place of a Canaanite Tribe called the Philistines. Right now Abraham goes down there, and the precursor of the Philistines is led by a man by the name of Abimelech. Now here's the challenge: There are five Abimelechs in your Bible. Which one is this one? Here is a suggestion for you. Abimelech may be a name, but it may also be a title. It actually means my father is a king or I am the father of kings. It may have actually been a title for Canaanite kings in general. Now here is Abimelech and when Abraham comes into this area he says, "There's no fear of God here. Okay. (Remember his plan with Sarah? This is where we'll resort to our default. They may kill me to get you, Sarah so we're going to tell them that you're my sister."

This time when it was done Abimelech doesn't just pass by. It's a very common thing here that one of the ways that you increase your power is to reach into a powerful clan and bring someone from that clan into your clan. Abimelech says, "Okay. Abraham is a powerful man. He's got a sister. I'll reach in and bring his sister into my concubine, into my harem among my wives." Now we'll find that God protects Sarah's purity by seeing to it that Abimelech, either by disease or dysfunctionality of some kind doesn't consummate the relationship with Sarah, and so he never actually engages in the adulterous relationship. Before anything can happen, God speaks to him in a dream.

By the way, have you ever wondered whether God speaks to unbelievers? Have you ever wondered if unbelievers pray and God hears their prayers? It happens right here. Here's Abimelech, a moral man, but there is no evidence that he's an actual believer. God speaks to him. He talks back to God, he prays. God is under no obligation to hear him, but He does hear him. God comes to him in a dream in Genesis 20:3–7. How would you like to go to bed one night and God speaks to you in a dream and says, "You're a dead man"? God said to Abimelech in a dream, "You are as good as dead right now, you and everything attached to you, and by the way, I've closed the womb of your entire harem, and you're all on the verge of My destruction because you took a man's wife." Notice that God didn't say, "You took Sarah. Abraham is My friend..." No, God does bring the warnings of judgment against all adultery. You took a man's wife. It's so serious that in the nation of Israel this will become a capital offense. You took a man's wife so you're as good as dead.

Abimelech immediately cries out to God and says, "But, oh, God, I am innocent. Elohim, I am innocent. He told me it was his sister. She told me she was his sister so I just thought I was getting the sister of this guy Abraham. Will you destroy me and I am innocent and my people and we're all innocent?" And God says, "Oh, you're innocent. I know about the situation. The only reason you're innocent is because I didn't let you get to her. I stopped you. Why do you think you didn't consummate the relationship? I stopped you." It literally says in Genesis 20:6, "it was I who kept you from sinning against Me." So Abimelech pleads with the Lord for mercy, and the Lord grants it to him.

Then in Genesis 20:8 through the end of the chapter is the interaction between Abimelech and Abraham. Abimelech comes back to Abraham asks him three questions, "Why did you do this to me? What have I done to you that you would do this? And why would you bring this reproach upon not only me, but everybody I'm responsible to?" Abraham gives kind of this lame excuse. He says, "Well, I came into this foreign land, and I just figured there's no fear of God here, and, therefore, since there's no fear of God here, they could kill me just to try to get at my wife." Then we find out something very interesting. This lie that, "She's my sister," wasn't something that just happened in Egypt in Genesis 12 and wasn't something that was just repeated in Genesis 14.

This is something that Abraham and Sarah first talked about when they first left Ur of the Chaldeans. Abraham basically said to Sarah, "We're going out wandering. I don't know where we're going, but when we get out there, listen, there is a good possibility that people will kill me to get you. Therefore, as we go wandering, wherever we go, here's what we're going to be ready to do: We're going to take this fact that you're my half-sister and make this thing a whole lie. We'll tell people that you're my sister wherever we go." It is my opinion that you have two records of this. Actually, I think this happened on numerous occasions. In other words, this had been a pattern of sin and self-preservation, even at the expense of his wife if that was the case, and the two times in which somebody took advantage of this to take her into their harem is recorded for you, but in reality this had been a 30-year pattern that they had agreed on when they first left the land of the Chaldeans.

Abimelech challenges him, reproves him, exhorts him and rebukes him. Abraham repents, and then, lo and behold, God moved Abimelech to affirm to the entire world that Sarah was still pure by giving to Abraham a thousand pieces of silver, donkeys, livestock and servants, male and female. Abraham comes out of this with an increased portfolio. Now what are some lessons we can learn from this?

I want to give you three takeaways from this text. Now, remember, default sins happen at a moment of spiritual vulnerability. Our first takeaway has to do with spiritual vulnerability. There are three factors in vulnerability spiritually in our life. There's one in the text and two by common sense are attached to this one. The first one that's in the text is fear. The Bible says, "Be anxious for" what? "Nothing." The Bible says in Philippians 4:6, [6] Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Romans 8:15 says [15] For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" Galatians 5:1 says [1] For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. You have been liberated from the spirit of fear that leads you to slavery. What you fear will control you. Proverbs 29:25 says, [25] The fear of man lays a snare (a reproach), but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe. It is fear.

There are numerous fears and they clamor for our attention. Satan uses them. Satan loves to work by enticement and intimidation. Peter says in I Peter 5:8, [8] Your adversary the devil (Satan) prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Now why does a lion roar? It is because the roar brings fright. Fear does what? Fear paralyzes. Satan loves to work by enticement through the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, by intimidation and by fear. It could be fear of the future, fear of commitment, fear of confessing Christ publicly, fear of walking in obedience, fear of a real commitment of transparency and vulnerability in a marriage. I might get taken advantage of. It could be the fear of man. Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, [28] And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. It is fear.

The Bible says, "Do not fear." Then it tells us how not to fear. The antidote to fear or the opposite of fear is not courage. The opposite of fear is love. I John 4:18a says, [18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. That means there's only one case of perfect love. That's not my love to Jesus. My love to Jesus falters. It is Jesus' love for me. "Perfect love casts out all fear." It was no accident that we sung, "Come thou long-expected Jesus. From our fears relieve us." It was no accident we sung today, "He rejoices over you." You may be thinking, "Harry, if you think Abraham faltered, I'm worse than Abraham." That's why God put Abraham here in the Bible. That's why in the Bible, when the great heroes of the faith are put before us, they're not whitewashed. We get to see everything so that you know it doesn't begin with you and calls upon Jesus. It begins with Jesus. It ends with Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:24 says [24] He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. Philippians 1:6 says [6] And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is the Savior who will quiet my fears with His love. It is my Savior that calls me into the battle, and He says, "Don't fear the day of the battle. I am your chariot. I am your armor. I am your sword. I am your fortress, and I will never leave you nor forsake you."

As I was thinking of recent high school graduates in this area I could not help but think of the enticement of Satan as they move to college. I also could not help but think of the intimidation of Satan. If you confess Jesus, you may not get in that sorority. By the way, don't open your mouth about Jesus in the classroom, as the professor, some delight in the intimidation. For you right now, are you going to fight for your marriage or are you going to run? Fear causes people to flee. When faith falters, fear dominates, but when faith is there, the love of Christ comforts, controls and constrains, and then the one true fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

It's interesting to note that Abimelech, a pagan king, is showing more fear of the Lord and respect than Abraham, the friend of God. Oh, how easily we can falter in our faith, and the answer is to be honest, confess, come back to the Lord and put your trust in Him that the love of Christ would ravish you and keep you. Jesus said in John 18:9, "Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one." It is the unstoppable love of Christ. Romans 8:31–39 says [31] What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? [33] Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. [34] Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Just like He was interceding for Abraham just then) [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? [36] As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." [37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Your God has a Son whom He will not let go, and that Son has you, and He will not let you go. There is the courage of life. It is the love of Christ that casts out all fear.

These next two takeaways are not in the text but by reasonable inference I think we can see them. What else makes us vulnerable? Fear is one which we just covered. Let me tell you the handmaiden of fear, the Siamese twin – fatigue. You get fearful when you're weary. There are two kinds of weariness: There's the weariness spiritually where you just keep thinking you have to keep doing more to be saved or stay saved. I want to do more, but I'm not going to try to do more to be saved to stay saved. I just want to do more for my Savior, but for my salvation I am resting. The song says "Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of who You are."

Now don't forget you're not a disembodied spirit. You're in a body, and if you get physically tired it affects you spiritually. If you get spiritually tired, it affects you physically. So I'd like to give you some very spiritual advice? Go to bed. I'd also like to quote Robert E. Lee who said, "Every two hours of sleep before 12:00 is better than three after 12:00." Just go to bed. You don't have to stay up forever. Rest in bed, but most of all, Jesus said in Matthew 11:28–29, [28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Rest in your Savior. His work on the cross was sufficient. He has risen. He intercedes for you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do all for His glory, but do nothing for salvation. That's been done. [8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV).

I was a little boy in the first grade. The year was 1955. I was living in Raleigh, North Carolina. My dad was in the Carolina league. My grandfather and grandmother moved to Raleigh. Not long after that Hurricane Hazel hit the East Coast. Well, it devastated from Charleston right on up into the Carolinas. It got all the way up to Raleigh with the center still intact and it hit. I was in my grandparents' house, and the lights went out. Everything flickered. I began to get frightened. Granddaddy said, "Come on. We'll go to your dad and mom's house." It was a block and a half away.

So we walked out of my granddad's house right in the middle of that hurricane that had hit. I'm just a little boy, and as soon as that 100-plus mile an hour wind hit me, it took all of the breath out of me. I felt like I couldn't even breathe. In fact, I looked at my granddad, I said, "I'm dying. I can't breathe." I could get dramatic every once in a while as a kid. He said, "Son, you'll be all right. I'll take care of you." He took his raincoat and put it all the way around me. He pulled me close, and all of a sudden I could breathe. I rested and my fears were gone under his care. The Spirit of God reaches out in a ravishing love, an unstoppable love, and He holds you. I love the passages in the Psalms where He says, "He will cover you with his pinions" (Psalm 91:4). It took me a while to find out what pinions were. They're wings.

When we were in Chattanooga, Tennessee, our youngest daughter went to kindergarten and we would carpool together with another lady and her daughter. We'd take her little child to school. This lady was a new Christian, and so she was just eating up Christian radio. She was listening to Christian radio one day and she heard a story on the program Focus on the Family, where this woman was standing on the corner of a major city street, and this guy comes over with a knife. He puts it to her throat and he says, "I'm going to kill you. Come on with me right now or I'll kill you." She looked at him and said calmly, peacefully, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The story goes that the guy dropped his knife and ran off. This lady who was a friend of ours, one day was driving down Broad Street and a man jumps out from the corner, opens the door, jumps in, pulls out a gun, and sticks it right at her head. She remembered the story from the Focus on the Family radio program. That morning she had read in the Psalms where it said the Lord will cover you with His wings. So she thought at that moment, "I know what to do. I'm going to quote that Psalm," but she couldn't remember it exactly. So she looked at the guy with the gun pointed at her head and said, "Feathers! Feathers!" and he looked at her and said, "You are crazy," and he got out of the car. Fear banished through the love of Christ. We are under His wings. He protects us. We can rest in Him and there can be no fatigue.

The third one is frustration. Those are your three "F's": Fear, fatigue and frustration. Don't be so busy. I plead with you as a pastor, a brother and a friend, slow down, and you're going to have to do this intentionally. There are inventions all over the place and they involve technology. They have two goals: One is that you'll buy them, and two, your life will speed up. Please, I beg you to slow down. You can't say "no" until you have the right "yeses" and you can't say "no" until you have bigger "yeses". Know in the Lord what the "yeses" are and then you can say "no". Go buy a chair. Put it on your back porch. Sit across from your husband, your wife and your children and talk to them. I'll compromise. Make it a rocking chair so you're still moving, okay? But slow down. Put your rest and trust in the Lord. Learn what your "yeses" are so you can say "no". You don't have to be incessantly entertained. You don't have to work all day to buy everything. Your life is in Christ.

The second takeaway is look at the common grace upon Abimelech. It's not God's redeeming grace upon Abimelech. I don't know for sure if he's saved or not, but I know God's common grace was upon him. God's common grace restrains people from being as sinful as they can – so that's another encouragement. As you bring forth children, as you go into this world, while this world is full of total depravity, and we've have a culture in a death spiral, God is not yet giving them over, and He restrains people like Abimelech from being as sinful as they could be or they would be. So trust in God's common grace as He puts the salt of grace to restrain society's sin and the sins of others. In fact, God's common grace is so great He can use an unbeliever that He restrains from sin as His instrument to speak to a believer. Look at who rebukes Abraham. It's not a preacher.

By the way, ladies, here's a great encouragement in I Peter 3:1–2, "Wives, if any of your husbands are disobedient to the Word, they can be won to the Word, without a word as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior." Ladies, be a daughter of Sarah, who was not frightened by any fear and then God brings in a Pharaoh or an Abimelech to deal with her husband. I saw ten ladies bind together in prayer in Greenville, North Carolina before I left for Covenant College from East Carolina, and they began to pray for their husbands. It was amazing who the people brought. We saw seven of those husbands before we left come to Christ, as God would bring in Abimelechs, believers and non-believers to challenge them. God uses all kinds of people and ways. He even uses donkeys. He's amazing. He used Abimelech.

When President Reagan became president, he had this thing called Supply-Side Economics, and he hired a man by the name of David Stockman. David Stockman was over budgets and all of that stuff for President Reagan, and David Stockman said to a friend, "This is voodoo economics." It got back to Reagan. It got in the paper. Monday morning he had a meeting with President Reagan. He came out and the newspaper reporters were all there, and the newspaper reporters looked at him and said, "What did President Reagan do?" He said, "Well, have you ever been taken to the woodshed?" That's what he did. Who took Abraham to the woodshed? Abimelech. God used a pagan king.

Then finally, here we are at the edge of the redemptive story. God said to Abraham, "I'm going to give Sarah and you a child. From that child is going to come a Redeemer," and it's about to, humanly speaking, unravel with Abraham's default sin of turning his wife over to Abimelech, but God won't be stopped. God rescues Sarah, preserves her purity, confronts the king, uses the king to teach Abraham a lesson, and preserves the line of redemption so that you and I would have a Savior. Oh, what a glorious King we have! Oh, what a marvelous Savior you and I have! His love will not let us go. Even though I am prone to wonder, I thank God for the rope of grace and love where He keeps bringing me back. Where do I need to be? I need to be fixed on Jesus, who banishes all my fears, for my Savior rejoices over me. Let's pray.

Prayer:

Father, thank You for the moments where we can be challenged by the love of Christ to walk in reverence before Christ. Thank You for teaching us how You deal with someone like Abraham. Friend, if you've never committed your life to Jesus Christ, do you hear that call of grace right now? "Come, child, come." There's a wrath to flee. There's a life to live. It's all in Jesus. Just pray like this, "Jesus, I put my trust in You as my Lord and Savior." Dear friend, come and rejoice in Him who rejoices over His people. Believer, the Lord's graciousness and patience is obvious. It was with Abraham. It is with me and you, but let's right now ask the Lord to banish fear, fatigue and frustration with confidence in Christ, the perfect love of Christ and the singular direction to live is not busy. To live is Christ. Father, I ask this in Jesus' Name, our Savior, Christ alone, Amen.