Nothing Held Back
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love…Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering…” Early the next morning Abraham got up and …set out for the place God had told him about (Genesis 22:2-3).
There is something intriguing about Abraham’s faith. He held nothing back from God. We can chose to walk with God while holding bac with a considerable amount of foot-dragging, but Abraham lifted up his life to God and offered it to him freely. He was willing to give to God the two most precious things he had; his son and his future. We have never really been filled with the Spirit until we have reached this place. The Spirit is not going to fill us until Christ is absolutely first. God asked Abraham for more than his son; Isaac represented Abraham’s future. Abraham had lived in the light of God’s promise, and now Fid was asking him to give up the promise for which he had lived.
We are never free until we are detached. Holy detachment comes when we live not for our wishes or for another human or for our future, but only for God. He is our life. It is even possible for a person to peacefully watch the crumbling of a life ministry or the ending of a life relationship because neither is the person’s life.
If my first allegiance is to Jesus, then I can have a holy detachment from other people and other things that enables me to obey Jesus and therefore keep those other relationships clean. God does not want people who are grabbing for what they can get. God wants people who can hold everything–their profession, their wealth, their status, their family–one an open palm. The only thing we are to clutch to our hearts is God himself. God want is to allow Him to give and to take away.
We can only allow Him this freedom if our security is not in our Isaac but in Christ. This is the job of the sanctifying Spirit. When our security is Christ, we can never be destroyed.
—Dennis Kinlaw,
This Day with the Master
What is most precious to you? In Genesis 22:2–3, God calls Abraham to lay down what is most precious to him—his beloved son, Isaac. It’s a staggering request, yet Abraham rises early and obeys without hesitation. Abraham trusted that even if he let go of all that, God would still be enough. In the same way, we are called to hold Christ—not our dreams, not our relationships, not our plans—as our deepest treasure. Only when our identity and security rest in Him can we truly live surrendered and free, loving others well without needing them to hold the weight only God can carry. As we move through this day, let us be mindful—what are we holding onto most dearly? Are we ready to trust it in God’s hands? —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics