God Gold of the day
“After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.” 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.”
Genesis 22:1-3
Back into the story where Abraham is called to sacrifice his son Isaac. I found this little gold nugget while studying over this passage recently and I pray it can be a big time blessing for you today!
There is so much that can be taken from this passage in Genesis 22, geez….God’s Word is jam packed with AWESOME life-changing truth straight from Him. What we see here is God testing Abraham. It’s crazy how each and every day God allows us to be in situations that test us, you would think a loving God such as Him would never let His children go through something difficult right? Well, that’s where we’re wrong. That’s the beautiful part about our relationship with God. He allows us to be tested and go through situations that are too much for us to handle so in result we are stretched, our faith is strengthened in WHO God is and the fact that we need God BIG time in every moment of our lives, not just these moments of testing. Just think if God didn’t allow us to go through tests and trials, we would never get better, stronger, more prepared for the BIGGER and TOUGHER battles ahead. But because of God’s love for us is so great, He allows for us to go this daily process of testing, and through our failures and successes God opens us up a bit more in each test to see more and more of His truth that is the truth that sets us free as we grow deeper in our understanding of Him.
It’s interesting after reading this the first time, it seems that Abraham has it all figured out, WOW, what great faith he has right?? For God to tell him to go and sacrifice his most prized possession in this way THEN, what does Abraham do. Not even a hint of hesitation, he is off on the obedient road following God at His Word. Wow, Abraham seems like he has it all together right. Well….not so fast. As a man of God who is much more mature in his faith once said, “context is everything.”
When looking into the chapters before this one, we see that Abraham’s journey hasn’t always been marked by traveling down the road of obedience. God had called Abraham to do many different things and in this testing, there was many different occasions that Abraham was disobedient and failed the test. So big note to take, it’s not about Abraham, it’s about how God has used his failures to grow him deeper in his faith in God, deeper in his understanding of who God is and the simple truth that Abraham can’t do this life without the Almighty at the lead. So after many failures and successes on his journey, we see God give this test, and unlike some of the other times in his past, Abraham wasted NO TIME to be obedient.
Literally, we see here that “early the next morning,” Abraham was up and off on the road to obedience. We don’t see any hesitation, we don’t see any verses where Abraham questioned God or through in his opinion, he just went without thinking twice. Think about how hard that would be? To be told to go sacrifice your only son, the son that you have waited years and years to have, wouldn’t you want to petition this wild test from God?? I’ll be honest, I would. I would have so many questions, I would be so scared, and I would have so much pull here to be disobedient and go my way over God’s way.
The cool thing is, Abraham sets an example for us here, it’s obvious to see how he has learned from past mistakes of not following God’s lead as quickly as he should have, and through those failures, God used them as teaching moments that have led up to this one moment of testing right in front of him. As much as we would see all the credit for this going to Abraham, it’s what Abraham didn’t do that was the biggest lesson for us. Abraham didn’t do all the regular human things that we would usually do in that situation. What am I talking about? Just take some inventory on your day, how many things and moments do you leave on the table that God has made clear is the right thing to do or say but, our fear comes in, our doubt and insecurities, and even more so our excuses come in, and we do all the regular human things. We question God if He is sure that this is what He wants us to do? We make up stories in our heads that sound good to us but in reality they are just twisting the truth of what we should be doing to make us feel better about not being obedient.
The biggest part of our regular human response when God calls us to do something, is simply PROCRASTINATION. As a world-class and long time procrastinator, I can tell you first hand that it’s an easy business to get caught up in! All it takes a little bit of doubt, a few excuses and some fear to move out of our comfort zone and we have a recipe for procrastinating. Procrastinating is easy to do, and the painful truth is that we do it with SO MANY different areas of our lives. Even on a much smaller scale than Abraham’s mission here, think about all the times God calls you to speak a kind or encouraging word to someone. You know what I’m talking about, the moments when something urges you to say something with love to someone but for whatever reason you fight back those words and avoid it all together. There is a million different moments like this on the daily and only you know what they are in your life. But I want to challenge you here to take some inventory on those moments and dig into find the truth of what holds you back to do the right thing, to walk down the road of obedience with no hesitation? That’s the lesson here, when we put ourselves in the way, we get in the way and miss out on all the awesome God moments that are being opened up for us to walk in right in front of us. Even if our excuse is, I’ll do it tomorrow, why wait??? When the Godly thing to do is staring you in the face, that means RIGHT NOW!!!
How do we not have hesitation and procrastinate these things that God calls us to do that are way outside our comfort zones, from the little examples to the BIG ones???
Y-O-U. Y. It’s ourselves that cause the problems. What’s the answer? Well look at Abraham’s response here. No hesitation, no second thoughts, no questions or excuses, no procrastinating, just obedience. That’s what happens when we live yielded to God’s presence in our lives. We don’t spend time contemplating and wasting on why we should or shouldn’t we just see truth and by the Holy Spirit’s guidance we move obediently in faith. Where does that come from? It doesn’t come all at once, it comes from failing a few times along this journey and in those failings, being humbled to see and come to a deeper understanding of WHO God is. Abraham doesn’t question, doesn’t make excuses or any of that because he is standing under the truth of who God is, that He is all-knowing, always faithful, always working things for good, and always there to provide for us no matter how hard the test becomes. God is in control and God has us. Abraham knows that, Abraham walks in that. It’s not what Abraham did here that’s amazing, it’s what he didn’t do that is so wildly uncommon for us to fathom in our lives.
Let’s be tested and moved by this lesson from God, let’s not waste one more moment or opportunity to procrastinate when we know that God is great!!!! He’s got you, He’s got this uncomfortable situation, and He is going to work it for good, just trust HIM and WHO He is then move in that. Nothing spectacular about it, it’s simple, we just like to make it harder than it has to be. When God says go, just go. What He has in store, you won’t know til you move in it but from knowing who God is, I can promise you it’s going to be AWESOME!!!
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