Genesis 22:15-19. 15And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.
Sometimes older Christians talk about being consecrated to God and to Jesus. To be consecrated means to be devoted, committed, or set apart. There’s an old hymn that says, “Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee.” Do you know that song?
The problem with this idea is that often Christians would try to be more and more consecrated or dedicated to God on their own, by trying harder. On top of that churches and pastors make Christians feel guilty by saying something like, “Look at what Jesus did for you, now you have to do things for Jesus.” Or, “Jesus loved you enough to die on the cross, now you have to love him back.” Have you ever heard something like that?
But Abraham didn’t offer his son, Isaac, to God because God had done so much for him or because God loved him. Abraham obeyed God because he trusted God. He obeyed him from faith.
As you grow up as a Christian, you will need to find your reason for obeying God. Sort of like you need to find your reason for obeying mom and dad or your teachers. The worst reason to obey God is fear. Maybe fear of being punished or forgotten by God. This is probably the worst reason to obey God, or anyone.
Most Christians try to obey God from love. Love is a good reason to obey God, isn’t it? Obviously God wants us to love him. The problem is that love can be a feeling that comes and goes. We don’t always feel love for God do we? So then we feel bad because we don’t love God enough.
The story of Abraham is trying to show us that the best reason to obey God is faith. Trust in God. I’m sure that Abraham did not love the idea of sacrificing his son Isaac on an altar. He may not have even loved God in that moment. But he did trust God. He believed that somehow God would keep his promises.
There are probably many things that you do because you trust that they are good for you, but not because you love them. Can you think of any of these things? Maybe eating vegetables or doing homework.
In your life there will be many times when you don’t feel in love with God, but you can still trust God in those moments. And, in fact, that trust, that faith, is exactly what pleases God the most. And usually, as we learn to trust God more and more, we will learn to love him more and more too. We will learn to love God for who he is and not just for what he does for us. Like Abraham, we will learn to love God even when we might lose everything.
The story of Abraham shows us that if we are going to be in a relationship with God then we have to obey him. We have to be consecrated to him in obedience. Like we said yesterday, that’s where Jesus comes in. We can never obey God perfectly, and we are not always consecrated to him from faith or love. But Jesus is. Jesus always trusts God, and Jesus always loves God, and Jesus always obeys God, and Jesus is always consecrated to God.
Thank you Jesus!
This is why we must learn to trust in Jesus more and more. We must learn to place our faith in him each and every day. When we do, we will see that Jesus never lets us down.
You: Do you trust God? Why do you trust God? How does Jesus prove that we can trust God?
You with Jesus: Do you think you can love somebody without trusting them? Why do you think that we need to trust Jesus even before we can love Jesus?
Prayer: Father, I want to trust you like Abraham did and like Jesus did. But mostly I want to trust you because of what Jesus did for me on the cross. Help me to trust you more and more today. Amen.
TLICfamily 