Sacrifice
Sacrifice - not my favorite word. But it is an important part of my life. When we become Christians, we become living
sacrifices. It used to be just a
saying. Of course my life is a living
sacrifice. Until I am put to the test
and actually become the living sacrifice.
Everything is easy in theory or in word only. But then that day comes when we are
tested. My day came on Tuesday, July 10th,
2007, as I said goodbye to my new husband at the airport. Yes, I knew that he was going on a mission
trip before we got married. Yes, I knew
it would be a long trip - 5 months.
Knowing this ahead of time didn’t prepare me for the actual event. I cried so much that I am surprised my tears
didn’t end the drought that was in the area at the time! But God is faithful, and He began to minister
to me right away. He spoke to me in my
devotion time in Genesis 22:1-14
Now it came to pass after these things that God tested
Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Take now 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 and
saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and
he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of
which God had told him. Then on the
third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here
with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come
back to you.” So Abraham took the wood
of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his
hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and
said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the
fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide
for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went
together. Then they came to the place of
which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in
order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took
the knife to slay his son. But the Angel
of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said,
“Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay
your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God,
since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and
there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went
and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of the
place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the
LORD it shall be provided.”
Next to verse 2, I wrote in my Bible that this is the 1st
time love is mentioned in the Bible.
This really spoke to me because the Lord had asked me to surrender my
husband, whom I love. Just as Abraham
trusted God to return Isaac to him, I could trust God to return my husband to
me. I wish I could say that I
surrendered him and that was it and then I just waited for him to come
home. But I can’t. I have to confess that I needed to surrender
him every day, over and over. My flesh
wanted to take him back. So, every day I
had to place myself back on the altar and give myself as a living
sacrifice. It was hard to stay there and
not try to wiggle off.
Abraham isn’t the only one who surrendered to God. In 1 Samuel chapter 1, we read about Hannah
and how she promised God that if He would give her a son, she would give him
back to God. I can remember God speaking
to my heart and asking me about Charles.
I wanted to marry Charles and I was willing to be his support system so
that he could serve the Lord in the mission field. Hannah kept her word to the Lord and I had
to keep my word.
Sacrifice is doing something that your flesh doesn’t want to
do but you know that it is part of God’s will so you do it anyway. Our flesh will fight it every step of the
way. I know my flesh does. There is no way we could do it on our
own. Thank goodness we don’t have
to. God will not call us to do something
that He hasn’t already equipped us to do.
We can’t out give God. No matter
what we sacrifice for His kingdom, God will reward beyond anything we could
possibly imagine. Each one of you is a
living sacrifice. Every day you have
choices to make and most likely there will be a sacrifice involved. I want to encourage each of you to be that
living sacrifice - allowing God to do His will for His glory. You will never be sorry you did.
I will leave you with this. Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart fail; But
God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” In my notes written in the margin it says:
God is enough! Amen!