SURRENDER And OBEY GOD'S VOICE

Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky because you have obeyed me. (Genesis 22:16–18)
 
From the time of Abraham, people have been learning that
when they obey God’s voice and surrender to Him whatever they hold most precious, He multiplies it thousands of times.
 
Abraham gave up his one and only son at the Lord’s command, and in doing so, all his desires and dreams for Isaac’s life, as well as his own hope for a notable heritage, disappeared.

Yet God restored Isaac to his father, and Abraham’s family became “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” (v. 17). And through his descendants, “when the time had fully come, God sent his Son” (Gal. 4:4).

This is exactly how God deals with every child of His when we truly sacrifice.

We surrender everything we own and accept poverty—then He sends wealth.

We leave a growing area of ministry at His command—then He provides one better than we had ever dreamed.We surrender all our cherished hopes and die to self—then He sends overflowing joy and His “life . . . that [we] might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 KJV).

The greatest gift of all was Jesus Christ Himself, and we can never fully comprehend the enormity of His sacrifice.  
Abraham, as the earthly father of the family of Christ, had to begin by surrendering himself and his only son, just as our heavenly Father sacrificed His only Son, Jesus.

We could never have come to enjoy the privileges and joys as members of God’s family through any other way.

~Charles Gallaudet Trumbull~
 
We sometimes seem to forget that what God takes from us, He takes with fire, and that the only road to a life of resurrection and ascension power leads us first to Gethsemane, the cross, and the tomb.
 
Dear soul, do you believe that Abraham’s experience was unique and isolated? It is only an example and a pattern of how God deals with those who are prepared to obey Him whatever the cost. 

After waiting patiently,Abraham received what was promised”(Heb. 6:15), and so will you.

The moment of your greatest sacrifice will also be the precise moment of your greatest and most miraculous blessing.God’s river, which never runs dry, will overflow its banks, bringing you a flood of wealth and grace.
 
Indeed, there is nothing God will not do for those who will dare to step out in faith onto what appears to be only a mist.
 
As they take their first step, they will find a rock beneath their feet.

~F. B. Meyer~