Are you listening today with a frustrating situation in your life that seems hopeless? Are you listening today from a broken place that doesn’t make sense? Are you listening today in a state of dread over the reality ahead you must face?

I believe God wants to redeem this for you. He wants to make it right. He wants to heal and restore. He wants to bring your brokenness to a place of wholeness. He wants to renew you.

Would you trust him to do that today? Would you trust him to be the redeemer he promised he would be, personally in your life?

I often share the story of Abraham and Sarah, the couple in their 90’s unable to have children and then God shows up and says “ahhh, no … that’s not the way your story will end. I will give you a child and many nations will come from you.” But do you know the rest of the story? What happened after Abraham and Sarah have their promised child? Life was now good, they have what they want. Their son Issac is growing up and he’s a good boy. He’s everything they ever imagined.

Maybe that’s where you are in your life right now. Your reality today is what you once prayed for. God has been faithful. He has provided. He has made a way when there seemed to be no way. Look around you today and I bet you’ll find answered prayers surrounding you. You live in the house you once prayed for, or you get to go to the job you prayed for. Maybe you woke up next to the man you prayed for and fed the children you prayed for. Ya’ll I even have the dog I prayed for!

Now, what if God asked you to give it all up? What if the very thing he gave you was required as a sacrifice?

I’ll be honest, I don’t even want to touch that topic with a 10 foot pole.

Understand, that’s exactly what God asked of Abraham and Sarah. This child for whom they had prayed, this miracle which God had given them, their hope and their future was now at risk.

Genesis chapter 22 in my bible is titled “Abraham Tested”. I wonder if the current chapter in your life could be titled something similar. You’re being tested.

Verses 1-2 says “Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Yes, the son which Abraham had waited 100 years for, his pride and joy, his hope for the future is now being requested to be sacrificed by God. How do you even come to terms with that. What God? You want me to give up the single most precious thing you have given to me?

Now imagine being the mama in this story for a moment. Imagine looking out the kitchen window and seeing your husband gathering wood. Wood for a fire. A fire that would burn an offering to God. A sacrifice. She must have known. She must have wanted with every ounce of her to run after her husband and son as they carried the wood to a mountain to build the fire.

What a mother Sarah was. What an example for us today.

She was willing to sacrifice the best she had for the greater good in full trust that God would redeem it. What if she would have held on too tightly? What if she would have done what every single one of us would want to do – go slap your husband, call him crazy, and grab your child. Then become bitter at God for even asking.

But she didn’t. She watched as they walked away carrying the wood. She trusted God would follow through with his promise to not only give them a son but build nations from him. And if he took it away, he would redeem it.

I wonder if we hold so tightly to that which God has given us that we restrict life from fully flowing through us. I wonder if our grip is so tight on our blessings that life can’t fully flow through our blessings as God intended. I wonder if we treasure the gift so much that the gift itself becomes more precious than the giver. I wonder if we really truly trust God with the very things which he gave us first.

How tight is your grip?

Oh I must admit, I have a death grip on some gifts in my life. I cling so tightly to that which I treasure and I sometimes hold back when God is telling me to let go. I have to wonder how much bigger and more beautiful some of the things in my life could be at this point if I would have loosened my grip. If I would surrender. Why do I have to have it my way? Is this a lack of faith?

What has God given you? Are you willing to let him fully have his way with your life and all that he has given you? Do you believe that God will fully redeem EVERYTHING for you? That’s what our God does. That’s who he is. He is a redeemer. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

As God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, God knew fully well he himself would sacrifice his own son for anyone who would believe in him. Why? Because he wanted nothing more than to redeem us. And God still redeems today. In every situation of every life who will seek him, he will redeem.

Yes, God sacrificed his only son to redeem us. Then he redeemed his son. He raised him to life again and placed him at his right hand forever in eternity. That’s full circle … that’s redemption. We don’t always get to see full circle redemption, but we must trust it’s in the process.

This is a word for someone. Redeem: To get back and renew again. To overcome the power of something detrimental. To release from blame, guilt or debt.

And we have a redeemer! One whose purpose has always been to redeem what you couldn’t. To overcome every single attack of the enemy and bring you back to a state of fullness.

Ephesians 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

Redemption is in process for you. Right now, it’s happening. Say that and believe it for yourself. Redemption is in process for me. God is redeeming this in my life.

Sarah watched her husband walk off to the mountains with her only son and a stack of wood to build that fire for a burnt offering. She trusted in a redeemer.

Abraham bound Issac and laid him on top of the wood, trusting God would redeem. That’s when God stepped in. He saw his faithfulness. Abraham passed the test. Then God provided a ram for the offering instead and Abraham called that place on the mountain “The Lord Will Provide”.

Isn’t that where you and I are standing right now? On a mountain called “The Lord Will Provide”. A place where we are being called to be faithful. A place where we must loosen our grip. A place where we must surrender. A place where we must trust. A place where God will redeem. And indeed a place where the Lord will provide.

Psalm 78:35 “Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.”

God, I trust you. Redeem this.

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