Lessons in Obedience

Scripture Reference: Genesis 22:1-16

Take a moment to think about what would your ideal life look like right now. If God answered all of your prayers and you were to achieve your goals and have everything on your vision board right now, what would that look like? Awesome, right?

But what if God said, “It’s time to walk away from all of it. Stop being friends with them. Quit your job. Don’t enroll in school next semester. Move out of your house.”

You’d be all, “Excusemesaywhat?”

I would imagine this is how Abraham felt when God sent him to that mountaintop to sacrifice his son. Sacrifice which meant kill.  Give him back to God, sacrifice like a lamb.

And Abraham obeyed. I don’t know about your bible, but from what I read he asked no questions. Chiiiile.

Stronger Faith

I’m not the lil baby that’s gone listen. I’m just not. While I don’t question everything, I am a bit ego driven. When God tells me to do something, I don’t always move when I should. I like to blame it on human nature but it has more to do with my faith than anything.

Abraham’s faith was being tested and he passed. He showed that his faith in God was more important than anything or anyone. By being obedient, he showed God that He could trust him. No wonder he became the father of many nations.

We don’t always let our faith guide us. Let me talk to myself for a second. What baffles me about my faith (or lack thereof) is that I act like God didn’t give me everything to begin with, like He isn’t the one who blessed me. Why wouldn’t I give it all back? Was it ever mine? If giving God glory means giving everything up, then why is that so hard to accept? God has always come through and I could say “even if He doesn’t, then He’s done enough” but entertaining that idea would be a waste because God is not done with me. I know that but yet and still.

Side bar: “Father Abraham had many sons! Had many sons had father Abraham! I am one of them. And so are you. (So are you!) So let’s just praised the Lord!” Y’all remember that song?

Complete Trust

God didn’t tell him to sacrifice his son for nothing. He was testing him. God was trying to pull something out of Abraham. Everything God tells us to do is for a reason. Reasons we don’t always know immediately and sometimes we probably won’t understand until we reach the pearly gates. God has never let us down yet when we receive instructions that we don’t understand, we hesitate and question God. And he isn’t asking us to take our kids on a hill and kill them. He’s simply asking for us to trust him fully and completely.

Stretching

If we want to become someone God can use, we need to grow and that growth can only happen through stretching. We have to go a little further, trust a little deeper, reach a little higher over and over again. As we go to new levels, there will be discomfort and growing pains. The present and future won’t look anything like the past. God is going to tell us to do some things that look completely foreign, like nothing you’ve ever seen before, totally different from what your friends are doing. But you can’t be the same person you used to be to get to where God wants to take you. The old you can’t go to the Promised Land. You gotta be stretched out. You gotta take some stuff to the mountaintop and meet God.

Except He probably won’t stop you from killing that thing. It’s time to strip some stuff away and take up your cross. What has God been telling you to sacrifice? What does obedience look like for you? What is it time to walk away from? How can you stretch? Is your faith strong enough to walk away from everything God gave you even though you have no clue as to what God has planned? See that’s the thing: Abraham didn’t know he was being tested yet and still he obeyed. This was his miracle child that God asked him to kill. And yet and still…

I’m talking to myself.

As always, take what you need and leave the rest.