Last week, we were asked to participate in a weekly gathering/bible study that the elderly members of the church do. Once a week they meet at the church and pray, worship, dig into the word, and spend time with each other. We were asked to plan out the two-hour gathering with different things for them to do. One of the things we had planned for them (and the only thing we ended up doing) was a devotional. It was over Genesis 22:16-18 which is a section from the story of Abraham. In this part of the story he has been asked to sacrifice his one and only son to God.
In case you need a refresher, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son whom he loves more than anything. He chooses to trust in God’s will and trust that God is good so he is willing to obey God and sacrifice his son. Before he could harm the child at all, God stopped him and provided a lamb for the sacrifice. God saw that Abraham was willing to surrender anything and everything to Him and because of this he blessed him a thousand times more. The Lord blessed him with descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 22:17) and through these descendants Jesus was born (Galatians 4:4). Not only did God bless Abraham through his obedience and surrender, God also blessed the entire world and generation after generation.
After reading this story we asked the older members if they had examples of times they obeyed and surrendered everything to God and if He blessed them. This one woman told two stories that really touched my heart.
The first story was about her daughter. When her daughter was young, her body was burned badly in an accident (I don’t know what exactly happened). After the incident, her daughter was mocked and people began to taunt them and chastise them for their faith. They would say things like, “Since you believe in God shouldn’t He have protected her? How can you still believe there is a God?” The woman said it was so bad that they wanted to run away. But they didn’t. They stayed, faced it, and continued to trust God and His plan. She said that her daughter is now grown and has a beautiful family and life and no one gives her a hard time any more.
The second story was about her husband. Her husband was a nonbeliever and she was a believer who was very involved in the church. Her husband came to her one day and said, “If you leave God and the church I’ll give you a house and all these things. However, if you don’t leave God, then I will leave you.” Her response to him was, “You will leave me one day no matter what. But God will never leave me so I won’t leave Him.” Her husband did as he had promised and left her. But then three years later he came back to her and gave his heart to the Lord.
These stories gripped my heart. I can’t imagine how hard it was to obey and surrender both of these situations to the Lord. I can’t imagine the pain of being taunted by your peers for your faith or the hurt from having the one you love leave you over your beliefs. But God allowed me to see and feel the joy of the blessings that came from her great sacrifice. They joy of seeing her daughter grow up and find a wonderful life with a wonderful family. The joy of having the man she loves, not only come back to her, but also give his heart to God and join her in being involved in the church. She surrendered things she held closely to her heart, she endured and persevered when it was tough, and God blessed her with something greater than anything she could have ever hoped for.
I’ve learned so much about God’s faithfulness in my life in these few months on the race and it has been amazing. But there is something even greater about seeing Him be faithful and keep His promises in someone else’s life and being able to visibly see the joy it has brought her just shining through. Her faith is so strong it’s unshakeable. Listening to her was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had on this race.
In the devotional there is a quote that I absolutely love. It says, “The moment of your greatest sacrifice will also be the precise moment of your greatest and most miraculous blessing.” You may not immediately see the fruits of this blessing, but God’s timing is perfect and He has it ready for you to give you at His appointed time, whenever that may be. It is so hard to obey God when we have to surrender the things we hold most dear. But God promises that he won’t leave you empty. He promises to replace it with something even better than you could have never dreamed of. You might have to endure and persevere a little while before it comes, but that will just make the blessing that much greater when He gives it to you. God is so good and He is so faithful. He is a God who keeps His promises. So keep your faith and hold onto Him.
Genesis 22:16-18: “’I swear by myself,’ declares the Lord, ‘that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Ephesians 3:20: “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us.”
Psalm 117: 2: “For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Hebrews 10:23: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”
James 1:12: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.”
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