All In!

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him” Ps.24:1.

In building altars and sacrifices, there should be nothing in your life that you cannot give to God. You shouldn’t have a sacred cow that you cannot sacrifice. You would be setting yourself up for a fall if you did because satan would know that that is your weakness and he will come after it. But if there is nothing in your life that you cannot offer up to God even when they are still in your control, then you are safe because God is in control. This is what it means to be a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice is to be alive yet sacrificed. Please read Genesis 22:7-18. God was not asking for Abraham’s cattle, which would have been easy. God was not asking for all his wealth, which would have been tough but better. It is easy to read this and move past the reality of it very quickly. But the only way to learn from these people’s lives, that God puts in front of us, is to put ourselves in their shoes. Now imagine God told you to go and sacrifice your son, not one of your sons, but your only son.

As they moved along, Isaac was observing everything his father was doing because he had been taught to do that and to ask questions when he did not understand something. So he cleared his throat and said, ‘Father, you have taught me about altars’. ‘Yes son’ Abraham answered and Isaac continued, ‘Altar 101 states that three elements must be present. We have the wood and the fire, but where is the sacrifice?’ [translated]. In other words, Isaac was saying the equation is not complete. And Abraham said, “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son” and they continued on their journey. When they finally arrived at the place where God had shown him, Abraham built an altar with a stone, arranged the wood on it, and he said to Isaac, ‘Lie on the altar’. Abraham had already said to Isaac, God would provide Himself a ram. And Isaac knew that what goes on the altar was the sacrifice because an altar without a sacrifice is useless. Abraham tied Isaac and he did not resist. My question to those of us who are parents is, can you ask your child for this level of obedience and he or she would just obey? I pray the answer will be yes. “And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. And at that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”. ‘Yes’ Abraham replied, ‘here I am’. ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy, for now I know that you truly fear God, you have not withheld from me even your son, your only son. Then Abraham looked up and saw the ram…” Gen.22:1-13. It is so important for us to know that God will test our faith. Every utterance will be tested.

Prayer: Father, I ask for the grace to hold loosely to things and tightly to You, in Jesus Name.