Giving Up Isaac

As far as thoughts, comments or phrases go in Christian circles this one, “Giving Up Isaac”, holds a great deal of weight. Specifically because it immediately brings to mind the “letting go” of something that is so near and dear to ones heart. I can’t even begin to imagine what Abraham was going through as God requested of him his son to be sacrificed. How about walking up that hill side with no lamb to be slain? How do you answer your boy when he realizes that there is no lamb and he says, to paraphrase, hey dad…we have the wood, the fire and the knife but no lamb. What’s going on dad? (Gen. 22:7)

We have been taught and I believe that all scripture is inspired by God and was written for our / my sake. I admit, I am not always initially sure what every single one has to do with me much like the passage in Genesis that speaks of Abraham and his son. By faith I read, believe and receive His word for my life now or later. So, would I, in my lifetime, really be asked to give up something I count as God given gain? Just think, Isaac was the promised son God gave to Abraham and Sarah and God was requesting him back.

As God has ordained in His perfect plan the question has come to me / us and this passage has now become crystal clear. Some of you, recently, have been made aware of the financial situation that we find ourselves in. Let me preface this a little. I'll begin by saying that it was not the incorrect decision to move here (MD for Bible College). In the past year I can say that I've grown closer to God more than ever. I / We have been richly blessed as a family and we are wonderfully built up in the Body of Christ. That said, the expense of living here has caught up to and passed us in a very real and serious way. With much prayer and consideration it has come to this. We are “Giving up Isaac” and that being in the form of our home. NO WAY!!?? Yes, it has come to this. We are to the point that we find it in our best interest to move…again. God gloriously gave us this house (Isaac) for our move from PA for me to go to Bible College. What a wonderful provision at the time. But as time has passed it is time to let it go. We firmly believe this too is of God because getting into something with a more manageable payment will allot the following:
1. Saving – I can’t remember the last time we were able to save something and this will enable us to do so. For emergencies, rainy day anything. Not necessarily storing up treasure on earth but able to maybe rub two pennies together.
2. Going – We’ll finally be able to make some trips that have been on our hearts. The European Conference, Puerto Rico and more.
3. Paying – Well be able to pay down the smallish debt we have accrued. It is our desire to be credit card debt free and maybe even no car payments if at all possible and live without this burden that so many live under and are weighed down by.

The decision has been made. Isaac (our house) is on the altar (up for rent), however this is not the end of the story!! God provides!! The ram is in the thickets and Isaac is not sacrificed. For us, God has provided a very unexpected opportunity for me at work which opens doors for about 10 hours of overtime a week temporarily. This is huge to us! However, as I stated the decision has been made and we will still move. To us this is just an added bonus from God! We ask ourselves… is God honoring our decision?!! We choose to believe so, because this solution to our situation brings us complete peace. God is the one that gives peace when we are letting go of “ourselves”. That is amazing! Less of me, more of Him (Jn. 3:30)!! Thank God for these places in our life where this can transpire. Places that are valleys, but we go through them walking closely with our Lord and before we know it we are on the mountaintop praising God and wondering how we got there… oh, it was HIM!!!

We want to deeply thank everyone that has gone to throne for us in prayer! Wow, what a response of friendship, of love, of compassion, OF BODY LIFE!! We are eternally grateful and to be honest we didn’t think we would be saying this is an answered prayer already, but I think it is. However, we do ask for continued prayer as we go into the process of renting our house and looking for something that would be a blessing to our family in an apartment. By the way, just as another “praise report”… we finally got word on our car (see prior Blog) and it is going to be fixed. We will have it back next week. This was a looming concern to us since is it was on the borderline of being totaled. Once again, praise God!!