July 15.
Forfeiting Fully

Genesis 22:3

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

Thine only son – these words reveal the magnitude of the sacrifice. Remember, if Abraham offered Isaac, he and Sarah wouldn’t have any other children. If he offered up Isaac, his whole home would be empty. Isaac was the promised seed, the covenant that God had made with Abraham. And yet God said, “Take now thine only son.” It’s not hard to give up some things, but when you give up all you’ve got, that is a sacrifice. This is why Jesus was so impressed when the widow came and gave her two mites in the offering plate. It was because she gave all she had.

There was a sister who had another sister come in to visit a while from out of town. She said to the out of town sister, “Make yourself at home. Enjoy your stay while you’re here. I must go to work everyday, but my house is yours.” So the guest sister decided to go into the kitchen and fix herself some breakfast. But the kitchen door was locked. She thought, “Well, I guess my sister made a mistake and locked the door, so I’ll go to the bathroom and take a nice hot bath.” But the bathroom door was also locked. She said, “Well, there’s a big screen television down in the den. I think I’ll just go and watch television.” She went down to the den to go in, but the door was locked. Even though she was in the house, she was restricted to certain areas.

Sometimes we treat the Lord the same way. We accept him as our personal savior, but we restrict him to certain areas of our lives. We lock him out from certain things. We keep part of our mind and use it for stuff that’s not pleasing in the sight of the Lord. We want to give him our hand, yet hold on to our hearts. We must give all.