2009 – Day 352.Dec 19 – Releasing Our Group

Passage for Study: Genesis 22: 10 – 14 … Genesis 22 linked for study and context …

My Journal for Today: Just a few days ago, Swindoll’s devotional (and therefore mine – see Day 348, Dec. 15) emphasized our tendency – from our default sin nature – to hold on too tightly to the things of this world, especially those things or relationships we hold most dear in our lives. The point, again from Genesis 22, has been illustrated again today by Abraham’s willingness to put his full and complete trust in God and being willing to sacrifice his only son on Mount Moriah, as God was seemingly irrationally demanding Abraham to do so.

Now in the larger context of the New Covenant, which we have in our New Testament, as well as the Old Testament story we’re into here, we know that this very same Mt. Moriah became the Holy City of God where God Himself was not only willing – but did – let His only begotten Son, Jesus, The Messiah, be sacrificed, which we’ve renamed Golgotha, as our Lord would become the perfect Lamb of God, shedding His blood, just as God provided that perfect lamb in the thicket as for Abraham to sacrifice to/for God that day.

We now know that this story in the Old Testament became a pre-picture of the Messiah being provided so that mankind could be saved from the sure death of sin. And we also learn from this that God can and will always provide the grace to save us when we’re willing to hold on loosely and give for His glory anything and everything He provides for us. We have to be willing to let go of the things of this world, … yes, even the ones we hold dearest, so that they can be – in faith – given over for God’s glory. And many times, if not most times, these giving scenarios become totally irrational to our human minds and hearts. Again, I think of a dear young couple, friends of mine, who recently lost their six hour old baby; or I think of a 65 year old man, a devout Christian friend, who sometime ago was fired in a downsizing, placing his family in a horrible financial crunch. Think of that entire study in the Book of Job, where Job (and we) had to learn that God is God and we are not, especially when we feel entitled to things in this world we’ve been provided and hold onto so tightly.

I think I’m getting the message clearly in my mind from these studies; and hopefully my faith is maturing to the place of a Job or an Abraham, where I don’t have to be tested in the extreme [Oh Lord spare me from that!] to see if my heart has learned the lesson of humility and sacrifice as well. So, let me pray for us, my dear one.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, may any who read here join me in the prayer of knowing, deeply in our hearts, that You loved us so much that You gave us Your only Son, Who was the perfect Lamb, provided on that Mount, so that we could be saved from our sin. Amen