Genesis 20:2-6 – And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 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.” Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 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.” 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.”
THEME OF THE DAY. THE PREVENTING GRACE OF GOD. The Christian life from start to finish is all of grace. God saves us by His grace. He grows us by His grace. He makes us like His Son by grace. He will bring us to heaven by grace. Yes, everything we have and are is all of God’s amazing grace. Every day we should be a people humming along the grand hymn of the faith written by John Newton – “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” There is another aspect of grace we may not think of much; “The Preventing Grace of God.”
As today’s account unfolds, Abraham has succumbed to the fear of man and out of fear for his life, he gives his wife over to the king. God appears to Abimelech in a dream informing him he is going to die for this act. Immediately, the king gets fearfully defensive and pleads to the Lord that he has not committed adultery with Abraham’s wife. And he was right. He did act in a righteous way and God acknowledged it. However, the Lord goes further and tells Him what really was behind the king’s act of integrity; His preventing grace. The scripture reads, “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.” God kept this man from sinning and He often does the same with us. Now that doesn’t take us off the hook of fighting against sin, but we need to constantly realize God intervenes and even overrides our foolishness at times and prevents us from sinning. Why? Here are four reasons for God executing preventing grace in our lives and keeping us from sinning against Him.
First, God gives us preventing grace to protect His name from being discredited (Ezekiel 20:44). The worst thing a Christian and church may do is to allow hypocrisy. It discredits our profession of faith. But most of all, God’s name is slandered by backslidden Christians and dead churches. He will intervene and prevent such, not for His people’s sake, but His name’s sake.
Next, God gives us preventing grace to exalt His power (Isaiah 43:25). How does it look to a world enslaved by sin and Satan to see Christians living in the same bondage? God will bring about great power to deliver His people to display the awesomeness of His power. Did He not do so with Pharaoh when He delivered His people from Egypt? (Exodus 9:16).
A third reason for God giving us preventing grace is to magnify His love. He knows our fellowship with Him depends on our not living in sin. In His love and desire for our communion, He will prevent us from the folly of sin (John 17:11-17).
A final reason for God giving us preventing grace is to humble us. The most important virtue which must be developed in our lives in order to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus is humility. Without humility, no spiritual progress occurs. And how does God humble us? Often He does so by showing us our total depravity or sinfulness and then our total inability to deal with one sin on our own. God’s grace is magnified when His people are humbled to see their constant and total reliance upon Him.
There are many wonderful aspects of God’s amazing grace. Ponder its manifestation in “preventing grace”. It will deepen our love and praise to Him who always abounds in grace; all kinds of grace to a grace-needy people.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for not only giving me saving grace, but also watching over me with preventing grace.”
QUOTE: “Everything in the Christian life is grace; from salvation to sanctification to glory. All is of grace for God’s glory”