Day 2344 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
Genesis 22:2 NIV
What is God calling you to sacrifice? What is He asking you to lay down? What do you need to surrender to Him? What things are you clinging to that are keeping you from complete trust in God's plans? Reading through Genesis and this story is one that always jumps out. Abraham had hoped for a son his entire life. And God had promised to give him that son through his wife Sarah, even though she wasn't able to have children. Even in the face of impossible odds, he trusted God and believed that He would fulfill His promise to them.
And He did because that's what God does! Sarah did give birth to their son Isaac, just as God has said would happen. He fulfilled His promise to them. But then this happens a while later. God calls Abraham to take this son that he had wanted so badly for so many years and offer him as a sacrifice. He called Abraham to give up this miracle, to surrender this hope that had been fulfilled, to let go of the thing that he had wanted for so long. And he went. He took Isaac, a little bit of wood, and set out to do the unthinkable.
Friends, that's what faith is. It's following God down a path that unravels everything we've ever known, ever hoped for. It's being willing to do what we wouldn't consider doing because we trust that God is good and faithful. It's laying down the things that we cherish because God calls us to do so in order to help us grow in faith and learn to trust Him even more. So again, we have to ask ourselves what do we need to sacrifice? What is God calling us to lay down, give up, walk away from? And maybe the most important question of them all: Are we willing to do so?
Is it the pride that tells us that we've never made a mistake? Is it the addiction that keeps us chained in the darkness of guilt and shame? Is it the sins that have lured us in with this illusion of comfort and freedom? Is it the material things that we've spent so long idolizing? Is it the selfish popularity or power that we've spent so long prioritizing? Is it the greed that tells us that we don't have enough and always need more? Is it the hatred that we've learned from the world around us? Is it arrogance, vanity, wickedness, comfort, fame, fortune, prestige, a dream, a hope, an ideal, an illusion, or any of the other things that can keep us from completely trusting in God and surrendering ourselves and our lives to His plans for us?
Whatever it is we have to be willing to lay it down. Anything that we selfishly hold onto will only keep us from the complete surrender that our faith calls us to have. It will only prevent us from truly living by faith and leaning on God to lead us where He needs us to be to do what He needs us to do. We cannot live for ourselves, put ourselves first, and seek only our personal goals if we really want to live out God's will in our lives. If we're first, He can't be. If money or fame or any other worldly thing is our main focus, then He isn't. If holding on to what we already have is more important, then we will miss out on replacing it all with something even better, even bigger.
So much of what God calls us to do won't make sense to us. It doesn't make sense to walk away from sin when we're living in a world that thrives on it. It doesn't make sense to give up everything we've hoped for. It doesn't make sense to leave behind everything we've ever known. But folks, that's the only way to follow God! It's leaving everything behind with the faith that He will replace all of it with something unimaginably better. It's knowing that He will never call us to do something and not make a way for us to do it. It's knowing that He will always provide if we're only willing to trust.
Just as Abraham was about to do as God asked him, he looked up and saw a ram that was caught in a thicket. God had provided yet again. God saw Abraham's faith and trust and provided a different sacrifice. Friends, God will call us to do what seems completely impossible and illogical. He will ask us to do things that we wouldn't consider doing. He will ask us to leave things behind that we couldn't dream of losing. But if we're willing to trust Him, if we have the faith that we say we have, then He will make a way. He will provide. He will replace everything we walk away from with something better than we deserve, in this life or in the next stop.
He will always be good, always be faithful, and always be worthy of our trust. We just have to be willing to lay everything down and surrender even our biggest hopes and dreams to His plans for us. That's where we find out what faith is.
Comments
Post a Comment