Letting Go

"When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood." (Genesis 22:9)

I have to acknowledge Oswald Chambers for today's thought.

What was God, Abraham's heavenly Father, teaching him here? Abraham, Isaac's father, was obeying God to the point of sacrificing his only son for him. Is that what God wanted? Clearly not. What God wanted was Abraham's full and complete devotion. He wanted nothing to come between them.

Abraham could only live for God if he died to everything else dear to him. And this is the means God used to rip away that one idol that would come between Abraham and God: his precious only son. Now, Abraham was free to adore and love God with nothing in this world holding him back. He loved his son Isaac no less, but he now unconditionally loved his Father in heaven.

1. Has God ever taken you to the point of letting go of something in order to have your full devotion to him?

2. When you let go of that something, what have you gained?

3. Have you considered all of the talents and capabilities God has given you and how he wants to use them? What's holding you back from using all of who you are more fully in God's kingdom here in this world?

4. Pray, if you dare, that God will remove any remaining loves that come between you and him.

-- Charlie