The Face of Faith

What does faith look like?

An exerpt from "Believing God" by RT Kendall, on the chapter describing Abraham: (This was when Abraham has demonstrated great faith turning his back on Ur and pitching tents in Canaan - the Promised Land. But darn, there was a famine in Canaan and here was what Abraham, the great father figure mentioned in all three theistic religions of the world, did to save his skin).

"Once Abraham made the decision to go to Egypt he began projecting. His projection was the vehicle of his unbelief. What is a projection? It is a defence mechanism by which we superimpose our own fears on to our ideas of another's actions."

To make it short, Abraham projected that Pharoah would be attracted to his wife - he was spot on. (Sometimes our fears can be justified).

Then he projected that in order to stay alive he had to tell a lie, that his wife was his sister - he was wrong. (Projections can lead to unbelief).

The slippery slope of self-projection can spiral to sin of unbelief.

Abraham by this time, has degenerated from awe-inspiring greatness to a considerable muddle of mess.

Of course we know the end of the story. Abraham eventually became the great father from whom the Jews and Arabs draw their religious ancestry. He died a great man of faith, according to the Christians, and was awarded quite a bit of Bible publication space.

Despite that, Abraham's sojourn to Egypt was not mentioned in the book of Hebrews, in that famous chapter that dealt with faith. Possibly, Egypt represented the time of his spiritual descent, a time where his human reasoning led to paranoia, and eventually to a dark, sorrowful chapter in his life.

So what keeps me glued to this issue?

(Because I am at a place which I think is the Promised Land. However, I do not know for sure, and on top of that, there is a famine right here. Due to lack of (mostly external) confirmation, I began to doubt the promises. There is of course, the option to move elsewhere without famine, like Abraham did. But to do that would make null and void the very important principle below:)

"It is better to be in the will of God without the external confirmation - even in famine - than to be out of the will of God with all its inevitable sorrow."

I am VERY, VERY glad there is a Bible to slap me outta delusions and keep me in the straight and narrow.