Skip to main content

Is Your All...?

So now seems as good a time as any to tell you all that I am totally and completely in love with the most amazing man that I have ever met...other than my dear sweet daddy. I cannot even begin to describe him. He is everything that I have always prayed for a husband to be...and he loves me. For me. Exactly as I am.

Unbelievable and unbeatable.

But before you start wondering about church bells and wedding dates, it occurred to me the other day that I might truly be called to singleness. The scripture is clear on a single woman's dedication to ministry (see 1 Corinthians 7). I am nearing 40 at an alarming rate and have never been married and never had children. Marriage to this wonderful, amazing man might just be what God has planned for me, but what if it isn't?

I've been thinking long and hard about how I would react if the Lord asked me to walk away from this relationship and serve Him undistracted. My mind keeps landing on the story of Abraham. God promised Abram (before the name change) that he would be the father of many nations and the his posterity would number like the sands of the seashore. Yet, at the time that God made the promise, Abraham was an old man and married to a woman who was childless and beyond her fertile years. Long after the promise was made, the Abraham's wife Sarah finally gave birth to a son, Isaac. It is that same son that God told Abraham to offer as a sacrifice.

How hard must that have been for Abraham? Isaac was the son of promise and much beloved...and God asked for him as a sacrifice? Interestingly enough, the Bible does not even record a moment of hesitation in Abraham. Instead, he got up early the next morning to head up Mount Moriah to make the requested sacrifice.* No questions asked.



So I asked myself: would I do the same? Would I, without a moment's hesitation, walk away from Mr. Wonderful if that is what God required? I struggle with that question. Such a request, if made, would be really inconvenient.

I would like to think that I would walk away. I would love to believe that I truly have no other gods before the Almighty...but honestly, I truly hope I never have to make that decision.

Sometimes God requires us to sacrifice the very thing we love dearest just to prove that there is truly nothing between him and us. Are you willing to do that? Am I?

Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your all does the spirit control? You can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest when your all on the altar is laid.

*God sent an angel to stop Abraham and Isaac's life was spared. Read Genesis 22.

Comments

  1. Giving Christ our all is not easy, but it is necessary if we want Him to be Lord of our lives. He will bless our obedience. Great post. Congratulations. I am approving your membership into the Fellowship of Christian Bloggers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Kathleen. Obedience is certainly the key. God bless!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ride or Die

I love this phrase. There are quite a few subtle variations on the meaning, but it is an urban colloquialism that means loyalty, no matter what. I thank God that I have been blessed with a few people that have that kind of loyalty to me and I to them. It's a rich blessing that have true friends. They are with me and in my corner no matter what (or "regardless of what" as one of them would say). This week we had Vacation Bible School at my church and I was privileged to be a teacher. The first lesson was taken from Daniel chapter three. The very well known story of the three Hebrew boys: Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego. It is a wonderful story of faith, but something jumped out at me so profoundly that it almost knocked me over. We always focus on the deliverance. But the Hebrew boys did not. Their focus was on God and Him alone. They were ride or die for the Lord. Literally. If you read the story, they never once pray for deliverance. They talk about God's a...

Follow The Leader

In 1988, Robert Fulghum wrote a book called "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten." He also wrote a  poem  by the same name. The title is comical at first until you realise that some of the basic principles for a successful life (e.g. clean up your own mess, don't take things that aren't yours, share everything, etc.) are kindergarten lessons. One of my favorite kindergarten rituals was when we had to line up to go to lunch or recess or anywhere, really. Remember how we used to have to line up in a straight line? The teacher's only instruction was to follow the line leader. And the line leader followed the teacher. If you did that, you wouldn't stray or get lost and you would end up where you were supposed to go. As Christians, all we really need to know for a successful Christian walk is this same principle learned in kindergarten: follow the Leader. Obviously our Leader is Christ. If we follow Him, we won't go astray, we cannot get los...

The Problem With Grace

I'm sure you're all looking at the title of this blog post and wondering how "grace" could be a problem. You're right to wonder. The fact of the matter is that grace in its truest form is not the problem. It's what we do with grace that is the problem. There is a mentality amongst those of us in Christendom (myself included) that the God that we serve is so wonderful and loving and patient that He will forgive us our trespasses and sins whenever we call on Him. While this is true, the onus is still on us to live according to the Scriptures in this present world. Paul says it all in Romans chapter 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. And John talks about God's love in 1 John 1 begins 1 John 2 by saying that all that he had written was so that we would NOT sin...but if we sin we have an advocate with the Father which is Jesus Christ. The sad part is that sin can be fun; it can feel good. It can be so ...