This
is the story of Abraham and Isaac. So Abraham was praying to God for Isaac.
Isaac was a good thing and Isaac was a gift from the Lord. It's amazing in this
story, this is when God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his one and only son.
Abraham was called to obedience.
Starting
from verse one, it says, after this things God tested Abraham and said to
Him,"Abraham!" and he said, "here I am." so "after
this things" what does it mean? what's the context that leading up to this
point? well Abraham was going through previous trials and testing of his faith.
Some he succeed and some he failed it. So he already been traveling and going
through all this testing of his faith. He was going on a mission, a journey of
his faith. So he was facing his previous test and God comes and says,
"after this things". God tested Abraham.
God
tests us. The reason why God tests us, He puts us in this kind of situation of
obedience, because He wants to see if we truly rely on Him, it reveals the
genuineness of our faith if we are really going to respond His call of
obedience. When God tests us, it strengthen us, to mature our faith. We grow
deeper into relationship with Him through the testing process. We get to rely
on Him and get to know God even better. That is the purpose of testing out our
faith. He reveals more who He is, who we are, and who we become.
So
Abraham is standing there and says, "here I am Lord, ready to hear from
you." God calls Abraham and Abraham responded. When God calls you to do
something, what is your reaction? just run up and say here I am what do you
want me to do? I am going to act and I am going to obey? or you just run away?
don't miss out on that calling. When God calls you say here I am like Abraham
did.
Going
to the verse two. it says, He said, "take your son, your only son Isaac,
whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt
offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." When I read
that, I was like, that's exactly what the Lord is telling me to do. "I want
you to give it up to me because I said so." But it's beautiful we see in
verse three, "so Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey,
and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood
for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told
him." When the Lord command him, he woke up the next morning, he did it
even without an explanation. Remember, Isaac was a good thing that the Lord gave
him. But God wanted to see if Abraham desired God over the things that God
gives him.
Our
generation, we worship the created, but we don't worship the creator like we
should. So when God calls us to sacrifice good things, "oh God but my
relationship is founded on you." But God says, "yes, but you are not
worshiping me, you are worshiping this relationship that's founded on me."
If
we are idolizing the things and doing things of this world over spending
time with the Lord and if you don't want to give the things up and experience
the relationship with Him, that's idolatry. Do not put the things of this world
in place of God. I am not saying Isaac was necessarily an idol, but in
this situation that was a testing of faith. That's how it was for me. I
realized I was putting a lot of my hope in that relationship where I
should be putting my 100% to the Lord.
God
is not gonna call you to do something and not come through. He will come
through. So even when obedience doesn't make any sense to you, if He is calling you to
do something and you are saying, "why Lord why are you calling me to do
this and that?". Just trust Him and He will come through, He will answer
those promises that God made to you. When we give God our whole heart, we will
receive the whole blessings. How do you expect the whole blessing if you only
giving God 95% of your heart? What is that 5% you are holding on? what is that
5% you are clinging on that is keeping you from enjoying 100% of God's
blessings? He desperately wants to do a good work in each and every single one
of you, but I guarantee you that there's something 5% or 25% or maybe 100% that
you are holding on that you just need to give over to Him and trust Him with.
It's gonna hurt for sure, but God will comfort you.
Paul
calls us to run the race. We need to run the race. But we can't run the race if
we don't discipline ourselves to walk in obedience. How can we run the race if
we can't even step (one step) to obedience? There's
no way to do that. We have to take an initial step. If we want to fulfill our
purpose and bring Him the glory which is what we created to do, obedience is
all we need. Not just walk in but run it.
First
initial step of obedience that the Lord was calling me to do, that was hard. Giving
up the relationship I had was really tough. But when I first took that step of
obedience and I said, "okay Lord, I took that step." And He said,
"okay here's the next one." And I said, "okay God you did a good thing with this
step, I am going to take the next step and so on." Before you know it, you are
going to be running the race, you are gonna set your eyes on the prize and you
are not going to even think twice about obeying.
It's
going to be hard to take that initial step. Trust me, running the race is very
hard. It takes a lot of discipline and I believe we can all agree with that.
But it becomes easier, the more that you have eyes focus on the prize and the
promises that God has for you. Your eyes fixed on that, not the thing that this
world or around you said might be tempting you with. You have your eyes on
Jesus, you are going to run to the light.
You
become more aware of what God has for you. But the only way you gonna see the
Lord fulfilled His promises, if you step out in obedience. If you want to
experience God's way, the crazy way, the way that Abraham did, if you want to
experience the glory of God like that, you have to step out in obedience. We
want to see God moving our lives, working in our lives. But we have to be
willing, we have to give Him 100% of our hearts. We have to let go of the 5%
that we're clinging on to. And we finally have to let it down.
Whatever
the Lord is laying on your heart right now, I want you to do it. I want you to
be proactive so you can experience the glory of God right now. Just like
Abraham, "here I am, whatever you say, I'll do it Lord." Because
what's the point of saying, "here I am Lord, I want to hear a word from
you." And you just turn your back on it. You have to allow Him to
influence you and you have to let Him in. That's your own choice.
I
want to run the race with obedience. I don't know about you, but I want to run
the race as fast as I can and I want to experience the glory of God. I want to
step into the will of God, every step that I can while I am here on this earth,
while I am still able to do the great ministry.
Don't
miss out on things that God has for you. Run the race in complete surrender. He
doesn't want you to miss out on any good things. That's why it breaks His heart
when we fallen into temptation and when we settle for the things for this
world. Don't settle for anything when God has excellent things for you because
it's not worth it.
Start with a big prayer asking for big things, expecting big things, but you also have to
step into obedience. Give God 100% of your heart and you will receive 100% of
His blessings. We are living active breathing just because of God. I am seeing
the fruit today and that is just encouraging me to run even more.
Seeing what He has done for me, I can't even imagine what's next right in front of me. His plan for you and me, I just don't know. But I pray for all of us that God will call us and challenge us to lay down the things that not from Him. I pray that we can all lay down 100% everything because we don't want to miss out anything that God has for us. God, if more of you means less of me, I want you to take everything from me. Love on us Lord and comfort us and give us boldness to lay down those things. You are God of promises, show us your way so that we can experience your glory and let us run the race in obedience. Make it clear to us and give us the first step today, in Jesus name Amen!
