There is a story in the bible of a time when Abraham is called to go to a nearby mountain and offer his young son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God. Abraham and Isaac arrive at the mountain. Isaac is unaware of what is supposed to happen that day. He says to his father, look, we have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Isaac had seen his dad do this enough to know that an offering was not complete without a lamb. Abraham tells Isaac that God would take care of providing the lamb this time. You can read this account in Genesis 22:7-10.
Many years later, Jesus and His disciples were in a boat crossing over a lake. The winds were very strong that day. In Luke 8:23-25 scripture says, “As they sailed, He fell asleep. A windstorm came down on the lake and they were filing with water, and they were in danger.” They went to Jesus and woke Him, saying they were perishing! After calming the wind Jesus said to them, “Where is your faith?”
That was then. Today, God does not ask us to offer a burnt offering anymore. Jesus did that for us once and for all. He is our burnt offering, given to take away the sins of our lives. While He took away our sins, He did not take away our challenges. When we are challenged to get across the lake with strong winds against us, there are some things we must bring and there are some things God will provide to help us get through our challenges.
Examine your life carefully and learn how you got to where you are as you travel to where you are going.
If disobedience got you to a situation, obedience will be needed to get you out of that situation. Turn to God in obedience, and He will calm the things of disobedience around you.
If fear got you into a situation, belief in God will be needed to get you out of that situation. Turn to God in belief, and He will set afire your fear to burn it.
If greed got you into a situation, temperance will be needed to get you out of that situation. Turn to God in temperance, and He will set afire your greed.
If hate got you into a situation, love will be needed to get you out of that situation. Turn to God in love, and He will set afire your hate.
And then there are some things that come upon us for no apparent cause. For instance, if persecution comes upon you, then faith and belief in God will be needed to get you through. Turn to God in faith and belief, and He will carry you through your persecution. He will carry you through your difficult marriage. He will carry you through your sickness. He will carry you through a difficult relationship at work. When you turn to Him, He will turn to you.
All of this is easier done when we approach life the way Abraham and Isaac did. We ought to wake up every day committed to going up that nearby mountain to offer up ourselves and all our weaknesses as a burnt offering to God. Along the way, we will take all the wood and all the fire that we need. And when we arrive, we should be ready to offer ourselves to be the lamb for our offering. But we should not despair because God will provide His own Lamb for our offering.
So, let’s wake up today and set our hearts on the mountain of challenges that may be in our lives. Let’s grab those challenges, some obedience, and some belief, and as much faith as we can muster. Then let’s set off to offer all this to the Lord. It may be a difficult journey. The winds may be against us at times, but He will be with us to rebuke the things that would hinder us. We need but to keep pressing to get to the mountain.
If you are going to do an offering, you want the Lord to say, look he brought the wood for his challenges, and he brought the fire of his faith to burn his challenges, but he has no lamb for the offering. So, I will provide him Deliverance as his lamb, so his offering is complete.
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