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Because You Have Obeyed Me
by Jonathan Miller
Here’s why
faith and obedience are twin pillars of the kind of life God blesses.
Throughout the
Bible, God gives promises to His children.
Whether
promises of financial freedom, physical or emotional healing, or family
reconciliation, God has made promises meant to give us hope amid our difficult
circumstances.
However, often
the Lord’s promises must be activated by a faith-filled offering or sacrifice,
as we see in the life of Abraham.
After promising
Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, God asked
Abraham to do something unthinkable: to sacrifice his son Isaac as an offering
on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:1-18 NLT).
Abraham trusted
God with his only son through Sarah, even though Isaac was the only possible
means to fulfilling the Lord’s promise about multiplying his descendants.
Little did
Abraham know at the time, but his obedience to the voice of the Lord was the
key to unlocking incredible blessings, both for himself and for his offspring.
God told him:
“Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son,
your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I
will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the
sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their
enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be
blessed – all because you have obeyed me” (verses 16-18).
Notice that twice in this short passage God uses the phrase, “because
you have obeyed me.”
In another
pivotal moment in Abraham’s life, we’re told that he BELIEVED God, and it was
counted as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).
But in this
story in Genesis 22, the focus is on the blessings Abraham received because he
OBEYED God.
What a
beautiful illustration of how faith and obedience work together to unleash
God’s favor and His blessings in our lives.
Lessons For Us
As a later
parallel to the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, God
willingly sacrificed His only Son to unlock the gift of salvation for all who
would believe.
You see, God
will never ask you to do something He has not already done Himself.
Consider this:
If God had simply asked one of the disciples instead of Jesus to die for our
sins, it would have never sufficed.
Both Abraham
and God literally sowed their sons as seeds to activate their promises… and
both Isaac and Jesus were given new life instead of death!
The Bible clearly states, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).
When you act in
obedience to God’s prompting to give Him something He requests, He sees your
faith and rewards you for it.
That’s why the apostle Paul wrote, “He who sows sparingly
will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap
bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
What kind of
bountiful harvest has God promised YOU in response to your acts of faith and
obedience?
Often God is
waiting for you to release what you’ve been holding on to, in order for Him to
replace it with something far better.
Today, I encourage
you to listen to God’s voice and be willing to step out in BIG faith to give
Him your offering.
When you do, He
will fulfill His promises to you in BIG ways.
As He did with
Abraham in Genesis 22:14, He will reveal Himself to you as Jehovah Jireh, your
faithful provider.
Jonathan Miller is the senior
pastor of New Beginnings Church in Orlando, Florida. Learn more at orlandonewbeginnings.com.
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