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Image by: WY

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an alter there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the alter, on top of the wood. - Genesis 22: 9

This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is, sacrifice our lives. Not - "Lord, I am ready to go with You... to death" (Luke 22: 33). But - "I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I may sacrifice my life to God."

We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham form this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but he tells us to give them up for the sake if the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may sacrifice our lives to Him.

It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a "living sacrifice" - to let Him have all your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus (Romans 12: 1). This is what is acceptable to God.

God never need anything from us. He makes us give up things because He wants us to lose what is not right, to have space for what He intends to give us. As we give up ourselves, no longer chasing what we want, no longer depending on our own strengths, we begin to have more of God, relying on Him to do His will in our lives. There is nothing better than having God in our lives. The right sacrifice is not just giving up things, it is us giving up things to gain what is even better. Is your sacrifice right?

Experienced God @
10:24 AM
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