“After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “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 shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”(Genesis 22:1-5 ESV)
Whenever the Lord initiates a test, there’s always much more going on than meets the natural eye. But even knowing that doesn’t make those times any easier.
Abraham was asked to do the unthinkable. Forget, for just a moment, that the test involved killing his own son. Instead, think of it as God telling Abraham to kill a promise, a dream; the future God had given him. Does that make it any easier to wrap your brain around?
See how Abraham embraced this test. When given the instructions to go and kill the dream Abraham called it “worship”. Interesting? Sacrificing a God-given dream, an almost mature dream at that. A dream “old enough to carry the wood for its own altar.” Giving it up on the altar of obedience simply because he was instructed to. Worship.
Do you have any God-given dreams? Are the dreams the object of your worship, or can you worship God with your dreams? This is the fine line between true worship and idolatry. If you can kill your dream, you can worship. if you can’t…
But remember, God is able to raise dead dreams from the grave!
Prayer – Lord, may nothing in my life be so sacred, so precious, it cannot be offered to You in worship. Help me live a life of obedience to Your will, trusting, if need be, Your ability to raise a dead dream to new life. In Jesus’ Name.
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Jan Grace 