posted by Priscilla
Yesterday, Tom Patton preached about our hero of the faith, Abraham. The message was on Genesis 22. It was exactly the message that I needed to hear. He spoke concerning Abraham's devotion and Abraham's sacrifice, and how these were fruits of his extraordinary faith.
Tom defined devotion as what you are willing to hold on to. He defined sacrifice as what you are willing to let go of. The trickiness lies in the fact that oftentimes we should sacrifice the things are hearts are sometimes unknowingly devoted to.
"Hold on to things loosely, " Tom said, "so that it won't hurt when God tears it from your hand. We must hold loosely to our possessions, positions, dreams, and ... relationships."
How could you hold on loosely to a familial relationship? How could you hold loosely to a relationship with your own child? And what if it was not just any child - it was the son that was to bring forth a chosen people, to bring about blessing to all the nations of the world? Abraham saw in Isaac all the potential and promises of God's covenant with him. After many years of waiting and even after stages of disobedience, finally, the miraculous birth of Isaac. Abraham saw the joy of God's words to him finally to be fulfilled in his Isaac. And yet Abraham was willing to sacrifice this relationship. He was willing to let it go in order to show true devotion to his God - and Abraham showed it through complete obedience when he raised his hand to slay his son.
My closest human relationship in this earth is with my husband. We have been married just a little over four months. I love being married...I really do love it. I enjoy our marriage so much - I enjoy our conversations, I enjoy coming home to one another, I enjoy working together as a team to accomplish tasks together, I enjoy remembering our past and thinking of our future, I enjoy Beland's leadership over me, I enjoy my own feelings of love for him, I am even enjoying just sitting together in the room with him right now even though we are doing our own separate things!
Lately, life seems to be full of happiness. The world gone right. I am challenged in my own heart to consider if I would love God just as much if my marriage and the seemingly happy things in my life were taken away by the His sovereign hand. Would I willingly sacrifice my attachment to my possessions, positions, dreams...and relationships, in order to live a life devoted to God? I want to say "Yes yes!! No questions about it!" And yet, I know in my heart there are many weeds that must be uprooted before I can really say that with a genuine heart. You know those stories you hear of people who lose loved ones, and yet they shine in those circumstances because of their hope and trust is in God? You know, the stories you hear at church that make everybody cry. I am thinking of one in particular of a woman who lost her husband and was left with two little ones to raise on her own. I cry because it is sad, because it is admirable, but I think I cry partly because I feel like my hope would not stand against such a test.
I must daily put on my spiritual eyes to see the Giver of every good and perfect gift, instead of focusing merely on the abundance of gifts that I have before me. I think more and more I realize that I do not deserve the mortal life that I have, and cannot even wrap my mind around how much I do not deserve the eternal life I have.
Thou, my everlasting portion, More than friend or life to me,
All along my pilgrim journey, Savior, let me walk with Thee. - Fanny J. Crosby
