“Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Genesis 22:12
After waiting for nearly one hundred years, Abraham was in the process of doing what God had told him to do. God told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on the altar. He took his son up the mountain to the place where it would happen. Just as Abraham was to bring the knife down on the boy and kill him, God called out to him and stopped him. God provided a ram in the bushes to do the sacrifice. God told Abraham that now He knew that Abraham truly feared Him and would do anything He asked.
Although God has done away with physical sacrifices in the lives of His followers, He still requires sacrifices of a different kind. God will not ask you to ever kill someone on an altar for Him. The sacrifices of today are to give up everything for Jesus and follow Him.
Jesus had said that you are not to love anyone or anything more than Him. When you stop loving something or someone more than Him, you are sacrificing that person or thing to God. You are giving up something that you love in order to be closer to God.
Imagine how hard it had to have been for Abraham to give up his son, who he had prayed for nearly a hundred years. Most likely you have not prayed for something that long and then received it. Yet, there are things that may be dear to your heart. Do those things take the place of God?
Are there people in your life who take the place of God in your heart?
Don’t hold anything back from God. Give everyone and everything up to God. Pursue Jesus with all of your heart. God will provide for you as He did for Abraham.
Sometimes you may get back what you gave up. Other times God may give you something better. Trust God to be the One Who Provides. Worship God and God alone.
I pray today that God will give you strength to give up what needs to be given up; that you will trust all of God’s words for you; that you will trust in God’s provision and direction; and that you will seek God with everything in you.
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