Know how to let go at the right time

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Know how to let go at the right time

“By faith Abraham offered up Isaac when he was tried, and offered up his only begotten son, who had received the promises.” Hebrews 11.17

When Abraham left his native country, his family, his friends to go to an unknown land because God had given him a specific promise, he left “as God had told him” (Genesis 12. 4). Nevertheless he took with him his rich possessions and his army of servants. This was just the beginning of his learning to trust God. Years later, here is Abraham happy father of a boy conceived thanks to a subterfuge, Ishmael born from his relationship with the servant of his wife. But this child is not the one promised by God. He must separate from it when he is 14 years old (Genesis 21. 12). This is the second stage of Abraham's apprenticeship. If leaving his country, his culture and his relationships had been relatively easy for him, one can imagine that abandoning his firstborn was much more difficult for Abraham. Yet such was the divine will. Sometimes He asks us to give up something we hold dear to make us more dependent on Him. However, the prophet's apprenticeship was not over. God was going to test his faith by asking him to sacrifice what was most dear to him. Moreover his second son, Isaac was the child of divine promise: “God said, Take your son, I pray you, your only son, the one you love, Isaac; go to the land of Moriah and there offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you” (Genesis 22:2). By conceiving Ishmael with Hagar, Abraham had bypassed God's promise. Letting his 14-year-old son go away from him was a way for the old prophet to return to the realm of divine blessings. But this time it is the very object of the divine promise that is in question. And Abraham passed the test. He finally learned that by leaving, in the hands of God, what matters most to him in his life, he will enjoy a richer blessing. And you, ask yourself the question : what must I separate myself from in order to enjoy the full blessings of God ?

Source (His Word for Today)