You are all familiar with the story. God asked Abraham to give up the thing that was the most precious to him in the whole world: He had to lay the promised son, the same one he had waited over 25 years after the promise to receive, to say nothing of the 75 years before that of longing for a son, on the altar as a living sacrifice. (See Genesis 22)
As I think of this story, I wonder: Will God ask me to lay down something precious to me?
And if so, what will that precious something be? What is my “Isaac”?
Let’s remember that our “Isaac” cannot be something that we would willingly sacrifice to God. Rather, it is the thing in our lives that we value the most.
As I was going through cancer, I realized that my good health had become my “Isaac”. I valued my health above all; yet the year I went through cancer I was assaulted with four different health issues. I was brought face-to-face with my need to surrender my health to God, and I’m happy to say I did just that. I surrendered my health to Him, and it has remained surrendered since this time. Stressing about illness, subsequent time off work and resulting changes to lifestyle are all things of the past. They lay completely in His hands.
Yesterday I was brought face-to-face with another “Isaac”, only this time it wasn’t something tangible like my health. It is my lifelong dream, one which, as a result of the cancer-experience, I had thought was finally being brought to reality. I was forced yesterday to stand by and watch the fulfillment of this dream die in front of my eyes.
After many angry tears, I sat down at my computer to work on transferring old devotional files to a new website. One of the articles I came across was entitled, “Laying Down my Isaac”. I didn’t even need to read it, for I could clearly hear God’s voice through the title: “This dream of yours has become your ‘Isaac’ and now I require you to sacrifice it to Me!”
I gave it to Him then and there, and several more times since. In fact, every time I think about this little “Isaac”, I lay it back down on the altar. I know that in sacrificing it, I will lose it altogether. Yet it was not really mine at all, was it? Has God not made me but a steward of everything I have?
Friends, please remember today that everything we have–our health, our families, our livelihoods, even our dreams–are not ours at all; rather they are lent to us as precious gifts of God. Let’s examine our lives and ask God to reveal to us our “Isaacs”. When He does, let’s be willing to sacrifice them on the “altar”, for it is only in total surrender that our “Isaacs” can have real meaning and value, for: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Rom 12:1)
Oh, and let’s don’t forget that God blesses those who are willing to sacrifice their “Isaacs” to Him. He provided Abraham with a substitute sacrifice, and Isaac, now fully-surrendered to God by his father, went on to become the father of God’s chosen people.
He also gave me back my health, and with it, freedom from worry over illness.
I’m looking forward to seeing what He will do now with my life-long dream…
I also invite you to read the article whose title was such an inspiration: I am Giving up my Isaac, by Hazel Moodley.
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two, Author — “Aboard God’s Train — A Journey With God Through the Valley of Cancer”, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries. Follow Lyn on Twitter @lynchaffart.