Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Daily Light - January 18, 2011

Daily Light from the Lighthouse
40 Days of Faith

"Of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called."
Hebrews 11:18

Perhaps one of the greatest demonstrations of faith in the entire Bible is Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his promised son Isaac. He was willing to trust God to the point that he would give up every thing that he had spent his life waiting for. The journey from his home country by faith, the numerous conflicts with his nephew Lot, and the times that he had personally failed while waiting for the promise are now lying on that altar. What was this entire journey about if Isaac dies in this place? Was it the joke of a cruel God; did Abraham misunderstand what God had promised to him?
In Bruce Wilkinson's book The Dream Giver, the allegorical character Ordinary takes this long, hard journey to find his big dream. Once he finds it, he is overjoyed beyond words. His life is now complete, or so he thinks. While he is living out his dream, he hears the voice of the Dream Giver ask him to give Him back his big dream. Why? What is the reason for giving it back?
God is calling on His children to give all to God, even that for which we have waited for years. It is called complete surrender. All of us want to do great things for God, but only a handful of us are willing to surrender everything to Him in order to do so. If you read the biographies of those who accomplished great things for God, you will find that at some point in their lives they made a conscious, spiritual decision to let God have every thing. Amy Carmichael did not surrender her life to the children of India; she surrendered her life to God, and He mightily used her among those children. The same could be said for David Livingstone among the people of Africa, Hudson Taylor among the people of China, and the five martyred missionaries to Ecuador. We revere these individuals as great men and women, but it is not that they were great but completely surrendered.
Knowing that God can do mighty things with the life that is completely committed to Him, what keeps us from laying it all down for His purposes and His glory? What do we have that can give us so much here on this earth that would hinder us from sacrificing it all for what God has for us? Many Christians talk of living the abundant Christian life without realizing that the abundant Christian life has a cost. That cost is every thing that you have and every thing that you are. God wants all of you, even those things with which He has blessed you.
May you lay your own life down on the altar today!

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