Virtuous Daughters

I think most, if not all, of you know the story of Yahweh telling Abraham to sacrifice his son. For those of you who don’t know the story, I will give you a brief overview of it.

 Yahweh called Abraham out of his homeland, and then promised him that He would give him possession of all the land as far as he could see and that his children would be as populous as the stars. He then promised to give him a son, even though he was 99 years old, and Sarah around 90. Sure enough they had a son – Isaac. But later when Isaac was a young lad (the bible doesn’t say exactly how old), Yahweh told Abraham to take his son into a mountain that He told him of and sacrifice him there. Abraham trusted Yahweh’s leading enough to take his son into that mountain, build an alter, put the wood on it, and even put his son on the alter and, with knife in hand, go to slay his much loved, longed for, and promised son. Those of you that have read the story know that Yahweh stopped him before he could kill his son, and provided him with a ram caught in the thicket instead.

 Yahweh did not want him to kill Isaac, but Abraham had no way of knowing that until right before he was going to kill him.

 So, if Yahweh did not want him to kill Isaac, why did He tell him to? Genesis 22:12 says, “…for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” Because of Abraham’s obedience, Yahweh said in verses 16-18″…By myself have I sworn, saith Yahweh, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

 Sometimes in our lives, Yahweh tells us to lay things on the altar of full surrender, and, like Abraham, we don’t know if we will get them back, or if we will watch them go up in smoke. Will we trust Yahweh enough to let go? Will we choose obedience to Yahweh, over whatever it is He asks us to let go of?

 You know, sometimes when I am standing before the alter, knowing Yahweh wants me to lay something on it, there is an overwhelming fear that I am giving it up for good and will never see it again, that makes me hesitate to follow Yahweh’s leading and lay it down. After all, as long as I am holding onto it, I still have it, and thus still have some control over it. If I surrender it and give it to Yahweh, He might not give it back, or He might change it before He does.

 Yahweh is a wonderful painter and He paints the most beautiful pictures, but He can’t paint anything as long as we are holding onto the paintbrush. I mean, imagine trying to paint a picture with someone holding onto your paintbrush. Even if you succeeded in getting the brush into the paint and then onto the canvas, it would probably not come out very good at all, and it would probably have a lot of extra paint splotches and smears. Whereas if they had simply let go of the brush and let you paint, it would come out a whole lot better. That is sort of the way it is when we refuse to let go of something or someone. Yahweh can’t work on it/them, and thus cannot create a master piece until you finally let go.

 Sometimes, when Yahweh asks us to lay our “Isaac” onto the alter, He takes it out of our lives permanently. But, most of the time, when He asks us to surrender something(-one) to Him, it is because He has work He wants to do on either it or on us that He can’t do as long as we are holding onto it for dear life.

 Looking back over the times when Yahweh has asked me to surrender something or someone to Him, I can see so many blessings that I would not have if I hadn’t obeyed. You see, as long as we are holding on to things and refusing to entrust them to Yahweh’s care, every time Yahweh moves His elbow while He works on them, it hits us. Now not only does getting elbowed hurt, but it hinders Yahweh’s work (and I don’t know very many people who enjoy working while a distrusting person looks over their elbow the whole time, trying to give them instructions and constantly asking, “Are you sure that’s the right thing to do?” and “I don’t think that was right. You’d better check that again.” Etc.)

 Do we love our “Isaac” more than we love and trust Yahweh? Has our “Isaac” become more important to us than Yahweh and our relationship with Him?

 It’s not easy letting go of something dear to our hearts, and like I said, often times when we are at the place of surrender, we don’t know if we will get it back or not. Will we trust Yahweh and His leading enough to be willing to give Him those people and things that mean the most to us? The things we don’t think we could live without?

 Yahweh is not a cruel God. He does not do things because He wants to see us cry, or because He wants to cause us pain. He said that all things work together for our good. This includes the things we don’t understand. It includes the things that cause us pain, and make our life look really grim. It includes the times when He asks us to let go of the things dearest to our hearts. Everything He does has our best interest in mind. He said that even when He chastens us, it is for our own profit, not His.

 One of my favorite verses, and one that I have really had to cling to over and over again in my life, is Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in Yahweh with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Our eyes can only see the present; we can’t see what the future holds, or what Yahweh is doing in the back ground, or what the rippling effect of the present is going to be. But you know something? Yahweh can. He can see all things. He said He knew the end from the beginning, which means He not only knew this was going to happen (long before it did), but He knows the future, and what the results of this will be. All He asks is that we trust Him. He does not want us relying on our understanding of the situation. He wants us to trust Him, the One who understands, knows, and controls all things.

 Will we surrender the control we thought we had, and trust the One who loves us more than we have ever been loved and promises that all things are for our good, or will we fight Him, trying to cling to the last shred of control we think we have?

 You know, the whole subject of surrender comes down to trust. Do we trust Yahweh to know as much as we think we know? To handle things as well as we think we can? To make as good of choices and decisions as we think we do? To treat our dreams, desires, and loved ones as good as we imagine we could? Think about it. If you don’t trust someone with a sharp knife, than you won’t give it to them, but if you do trust them, you will.

 The same thing holds true with Yahweh. If we truly trust Him, we won’t mind placing our hearts, lives, dreams, desires, loved ones, etc. in His hands. And you know the interesting thing? A whole lot of people trust Yahweh with their eternity (you know, the time of their life that has no end), but refuse to trust Him with their lives down here. Why is it, they can trust Him with something as important as their eternity, but can’t seem to trust Him with a dream, a loved one, their next meal, etc.?

 If we truly trust Yahweh, than we will obey Him (because after all, we trust that He is leading us in the right way). And if we trust Him, than we will place the people and things that mean the most to us, in His care.

 And like I said at the beginning, it’s not easy letting go, especially when something or someone means the world to you. But Yahweh is trustworthy, and we can trust Him with all things.

 So, my challenge to you today is this: Are there areas in your life that you are clinging to instead of giving to Yahweh? I want to challenge you to surrender them to Yahweh. Stand before Him with open hands, and watch the wonderful things He can do.

 Surrendering is so very hard sometimes, but, my dear friends, it is so very worth it.

 May Yahweh help each one of us to be fully surrendered to His perfect will