What are you willing to submit to the Lord? For some people, their first reaction would be to emphatically offer everything. For the rest of us, we would offer the majority while holding what’s most dear to us behind our back.
As someone who likes to be in control and to have a plan, I have always had a hard time with full and complete submission to the Lord. While I have grown in this area, I know it’s something that I have to be reminded of often.
Recently, I read through the story in Genesis 22 of Abraham being called to sacrifice Issac. For context, Abraham and his wife Sarah had been praying and begging the Lord to be able to have a child for many years. In Genesis 21, it is written that Abraham is a hundred years old when Isaac is born! In the next chapter, we see God asking Abraham to sacrifice that very same answered prayer.
Genesis 22:1-3
1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
Did Abraham question the Lord? Did he try to run away and hide his beloved son from the Lord? Did Abraham attempt to offer a lesser sacrifice in place of Isaac?
NO! Abraham exhibited immediate obedience to the Lord. He could have easily disobeyed God, but in knowing the Lord’s heart, knew that the Lord would use this step of obedience for good.
Genesis 22:10-13
10Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12“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.”
13Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram a caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
The Lord saw Abraham’s obedience and returned his sacrifice to him. Just because we are called to submit or sacrifice something or someone to the Lord, it doesn’t mean that He is just going to take that from us. He wants to know that we are willing to submit it all to Him.
What is God calling you to submit to Him today? Allow Him to use your obedience for something better than you could ever imagine!
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