23 WHO COMES FIRST F O O T ================================

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READING

23 WHO COMES FIRST

PRAY Enlighten my mind and prepare my heart for your word today, O Lord. —————————————————————– READ Genesis 22:1-19. —————————————————————– THINK How was Abraham able to face this supreme test and give what was asked? —————————————————————– FOCUS The great question which every Christian has to face is this: Do you value God more than anything or anyone else? As we progress through life, God teaches us to value himself above everything else. He also shows us how we should view other things and other people. That is the point of this story. The moral question of how God could make the demand of the sacrifice of Isaac has no easy solution. What we see here, however, is a peak of faith and love in the life of Abraham. IT WAS A TEST OF HIS AFFECTIONS: ‘your only son … whom you love so much’ (2). It is easy to idolise someone, and the tension that can arise between the way God is calling and another person leading, is something that many have had to face. IT WAS A TEST OF HIS AMBITIONS: Abraham had set his heart on having an heir. And, Isaac was the only child through whom all the sweeping vision of a nation and a land could be fulfilled. God calls each of us to lay aside our own ambitions and fall in with his plans. It may mean giving up our career prospects, or the new house we wanted or … IT WAS A TEST OF HIS ACTION: it is one thing to say you put God above everything, it is another thing to act. How hard that must have been in the face of the child’s questions (6-8). Putting God first in practice may often be hard and painful. But, if we do it, we will be led into a new, deeper relationship with God. ——————————————————————

PRAY Ask God to help you to put him first in your life.