When God Puts You Through a Test

What would you do if God ask you to give up someone near and dear to your heart to test your loyalty to Him? Will you respond to God with unquestioning obedience, or will you attempt to negotiate with God? Look at Gen. 22:1-3: 1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham! ” “Here I am,” he answered.  2 “Take your son,” He said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”  3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. You may already know the rest of the story of how God watched Abraham take specific steps to demonstrate his deep seated faith and loyalty to God.  Abraham believed that God would keep His promise to make a great nation through his son Isaac, whom God told him to sacrifice.   The famous words: "the LORD will provide comes from this story in history. In this story , God saw Abraham's loyalty and provided a ram in the bush to sacrifice instead of his son, Isaac. Everyday we have opportunity to demonstrate our loyalty, our total faith in, and unquestioning obedience to God.  God does not do a full Gen. 22, test on us everyday, but He does look at our level of faith, loyalty, and obedience to Him. Do you love spending more time with God than your social media friends, or your devices, or your car?  Do you possess a spirit of appreciation for God providing the car you drive, or do you worship the car? Do you thank God for your loved ones or do you or do you put them before God, and cherish them above God? Will you love people, forgive people, help people, share your faith in Jesus, etc. as God commands? Does God look at your life and say: ... For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me" (Gen. 22:12). God Bless, Pastor Kennedy (MZO)