Abraham was truly free. What he knew, allowed his faith to overcome fear...the greatest fear we can imagine...losing a child. If we can overcome that, we can overcome anything. 

God clearly instructs him to "offer" his son Isaac as a sacrifice. That's ridiculous.  That's not even right. Unacceptable behavior.  Yes. Abraham knew that and he knew God. That's why he told his men to stay behind and he AND Isaac would return to them after going to worship God on the mountain. The scriptures don't record all the little voices in Abraham's head, the "what ifs" and the alternative plans he might have been imagining as they climbed that mountain. It just says "he obeyed the voice of God". 

He carries the fire, he builds the altar, he binds his son, he lifts the knife. 

This is the part hardest to understand. 

Even though we might know the end will be good, God fixes everything and we can trust, we still have to carry, build, bind and lift...then wait for the voice. The voice from Heaven intervenes and provides the salvation we desperately believed in. After lifting the knife, he gets to lift his eyes and see God's salvation. 

Abraham knew God wasn't like that...he abhors child sacrifice of any kind. He knew a lot of things about God, that I have made my life's purpose to discover. I have had to offer my own children to God, not on an altar, but one of sorts. To be willing to be separated from them, for a time, for God's honor and glory and for their safety. I had to carry, build, bind and lift once. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. Sometimes, loving God most, looks like you hate everyone else...not so...we just aren't used to putting them second. 

The test was a mercifully short period of time and God did certainly bring him back to me whole and new. But I had to know. I had to know God...that He was as good as I thought he was. And I had to know myself...that it was possible to put even my most precious treasure in His hands,  to live without it and to be ok. I had to know that my most precious treasure was not actually my child, but the One who made my child and loves him more than I do. 

If I have Him, I have all of it. 

The lesson is excruciating to learn, but eternally worth it. 

The thing I am most thankful for is not my health, not my life not even my family. It's for the One who holds and keeps all of those for me. Even if I have to lose one or all of them, will restore and show me the beautiful end of His supernatural ways. 

Know God, know yourself and be free 😊

Happy Thanksgiving!