‘He makes you this solemn promise, “I will bless you.”’ Genesis 22:16–17 CEV
God won’t ask you for what you don’t have, but sometimes He will ask for the thing you really want to keep. Why? To see if there is anything you value or depend on more than Him. Abraham was tested many times in many different ways. But he passed the tests and was blessed like very few others in the Bible.
Imagine God saying to you, ‘Take now your son, your only son… whom you love… and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’ (Genesis 22:2 NKJV) Can you envision the questions that would swirl through your mind? Little wonder Abraham was called ‘the friend of God’ (James 2:23 NKJV) and ‘the father of all who believe.’ (Romans 4:11 NIV)
And when the test was over, God said this: ‘Because you have done this thing, and have not withheld… your only son… I will bless you, and… multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore… In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.’ (Genesis 22:16–18 NKJV)
So here is the question: what is God asking of you? Are you wrestling with it? Are you withholding what He wants, or are you ‘all in’? Isaac was the hardest seed Abraham ever had to sow. But that seed produced a harvest of blessing greater than anything Abraham ever dreamed or thought possible.
What is God asking you to do today? When you say yes to Him, you will experience a whole new level of blessing in your life. Try it and see.
SoulFood: Hosea 1–5, Matt 21:1–17, Ps 144:9–15, Pro 14:5–8
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2024
