My Own Personal "Isaac"

“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.”
-Hebrews 11:17

A couple of weekends ago I went with some friends to go hear a guy named Eric Samuel Timm speak. Eric was speaking about the passage of Scripture that tells the story of Abraham and Isaac as they journey up the mountain to the place where God had commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Eric took this bible story and turned it into a modern application. He challenged us to find the “Isaac”s in our lives-- the things we treasured more than God himself. The audience was challenged to consider how our “Isaacs”s are gifts from God, and we tend to focus on them more than we focus on the one who gave them to us. In conclusion, Eric challenged his listeners to find their “Isaac”s and use it as their sacrifice to God, giving it to God for His purpose. I couldn’t think of my Isaac while I was sitting listening to Eric speak. I couldn’t think of my Isaac when I was thinking about what I was going to write this TJ about. I found my Isaac after I had read the Scripture for the TJ and had thought about it thoroughly.

I have a problem where I become completely overwhelmed if I see something wrong, especially in our broken and hurting world, and know I can’t fix it. Today I realized this problem is my Isaac. I focus on how overwhelmed I am and I begin to worship the feeling of helplessness. When I say worship, I don’t mean I’m singing praise songs to this anxiety, or anything. When I say worship, I mean I devote more time to thinking and worrying about my problem than I devote to meditating on God’s words and God’s presence in my life. This worried, anxious, overwhelming feeling has become my Isaac, the thing casting a shadow over my life, blocking God’s presence from my sight.

So I’ve determined my Isaac, now I must discover how I will sacrifice it to God so He may show me how to use it properly for His plan. First, I must daily hand my Isaac over to God. Second, I must ask God to help me with the temptation of resorting to worshipping my Isaac. For this second step, I must not only say “Lord, help me with this temptation,” but I must mean it, too. We often ask God to take our temptations away, but the largest problem with this request is we don’t usually mean it. As C.S. Lewis says, “he realized that while his lips had been saying, ‘Oh Lord, make me chaste,’ his heart had been secretly adding, ‘But please don’t do it just yet.’” When I ask the Lord to keep me from the temptation of retreating into anxiety, I must mean it with all of myself, or I will never be able to use everything I have to serve God.

Once I have succeeded in turning my Isaac into a tool God uses to do great things, there is another thing I must remember. Hebrews 11:13-14 says, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance... Instead they were longing for a better country-- a heavenly one.” In the words of one of my mentors, I must remember, “We were not created for this world, but for eternity.” Whenever I feel my Isaac sneaking back in I must remember not only that results from my actions might not be seen in my lifetime, but also that heavenly results are waiting for me.

So just as I was challenged by Eric Samuel Timm, I am going to challenge you to find your Isaac. Is it a fear? Or is it a relationship you know you value more than your relationship with God? Or it might even be something material such as your car. Once you find your Isaac, sacrifice it to God with your mouth and your heart. Let Him show you how to use it for His glory and purpose instead of your own. And lastly, once you have started on the path of God’s will, don’t get discouraged. Always remember that although you might not see immediate results, the results will come even if they don’t come during your lifetime. God is faithful and His timing is always perfect.

Prayer: Lord, show us the Isaac’s in our life. Give us the desire to turn them over to you entirely. Show us what once interfered in our relationship with You and show us how to use it for Your glory. I pray the Holy Spirit would guide us to follow You with our whole heart, and I pray You remind us of Your presence with every step we take.