Sacrifice.

"Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I tell you." Genesis 22:2

As I read through this chapter tonight, it seemed to be a call from the Lord to take that which I love to the alter on the mountain.  It seems almost cruel of the Lord to ask this of Abraham... especially since in his command he even addresses Isaac as the one whom he loves.  But the Lord had to test Abraham to see who had first place in his heart.  Isaac was Abraham's whole world... it's where the promise of God lay, Isaac was who determined Abraham's future.  Isaac was the beginning of a promise yet to be fulfilled... and yet the Lord asked Abraham to give up the promise, give up the future, give up the one whom God said would fulfill all these things... in order to show God that his heart was on the Lord, not on the blessings of the Lord.  This test of the Lord was a true test to show where Abraham's true love lied.

As I think about my own life.  I think about my love for my family, and my friends ... & all the people I care about.  I think about my love for little pleasures and my hope in a future.  I reflect once again on what things I let come before the Lord... & also what promises I feel the Lord has given me... clinging to those, instead of the Lord.
...today did I choose to watch TV or read the Word first?  Did my need to make it through the starbucks drive-thru cut down my morning devo time?  Do I spend more time thinking about the future... or being obedient to the Lord today?? ...knowing that the Lord may return when I am not expecting.

I feel there are a lot of things that need to be brought up to the alter on the mountain to be sacrificed.  I could guess at a lot of things that should go.  ...But the Lord asks for what we love the most.  Maybe not all of the things we bring up to the Alter get burned up... see Isaac was spared.  But that is up to the Lord... we must be willing to sacrifice that which is most precious to us.

"If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." - Luke 14:26  

...we often see this verse as such a hard one to swallow.  But if my love for my family got in the way of my love for the Lord, would I be willing to sacrifice them?  If my love for the city of Seattle got in the way of the Lord's will for me... could I say "Lead me Lord, I will go".  If I love to travel, and I desire to see the world... and dream about what the future might hold and what big calling the Lord might have for me.... and then the Lord says, sit, wait, be obedient to me now, in the little things.  Am I willing to sacrifice the longings and the loves of the soul/body, to satisfy the heart of my Lord?
                     ....Oh, but if we only knew that when we satisfy our Lord's heart, and give up the things to which our flesh clings, oh how free we are to be satisfied in a full way in the Lord!!
How free we are to walk in the will of the Lord, and not be burdened with our own weights, our future expectations, our love of the world, our guilt.

So may we come before the Lord and ask of Him what He would have us bring to that alter on the mountain in Moriah.  *note Moriah means "God is my teacher".  May we have teachable hearts... and submit to the school of Christ, letting Him deal with the many other loves/idols in our lives.  And be free to be Christ's.  

Goodnight friends.  :)