Friday 27 May 2005

Now I know that you fear God

...lay not thy hand upon the lad... for know I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.” - Genesis 22v12

Whenever I read this account, with six children of my own, I think about how Abraham must have felt. We have been marvellously blessed with children. Abraham had to wait until he was one hundred years old to have the promised son. I cannot, in the furthest stretch of my imagination doing what Abraham did.

Verse 10 declares, “And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.”

Here we find Abraham facing a test. Through the years Abraham had a record of not trusting God completely. Many time he had tried to sort things out his way. Now, in this time of testing, what would Abraham do. Did he really, truly, trust God.

We know the story well. The angel of the Lord intervened and the life of Isaac was spared. The angel of the Lord informs us why Isaac was spared, “because you have not withheld your son from me.”



Today we must ask ourselves, “Is there anything that I am withholding from God?” There all kinds of thing that we can withhold. Some withhold the chequebook. Some their popularity. Sometimes it is family and friends. It can even be a job situation. An attitude may develop that says, “Lord, you can have everything but...”

Abraham was not withholding the most precious thing in the world. By this God knew that Abraham finally truly feared Him.

Do we really, truly, totally fear the Lord? Do we show it by our lives? What is it that we are holding back from Him that indicates that we do not fear and trust Him as we should? Lets examine our lives and make sure that there in nothing that we are holding back from Him.

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