“You have obeyed me, and so you and your descendants will be a blessing to all nations on earth.”

Genesis 22:18 (Contemporary English Version)

 

 

This chapter illustrates how obedience is an important key to unlock the blessing of God.  The Lord had told Abraham to go and sacrifice his only son.  Abraham had a choice: to obey God or disobey.  We are also faced with those two same choices on a daily basis.  We think that because we obeyed God one day, we deserve blessings for eternity.

Abraham wasn’t only blessed because of that one day.  He was obedient every day to voice of the Lord.  When we hear a voice telling us to give up something we love, we tend to ignore it, thinking it must be the devil talking.  God spoke to Abraham and told him to sacrifice Isaac to Him.  It wasn’t the devil who said it, it was God.  When we face that kind of challenge we tend to try to bargain with God to see if we can come to some sort of agreement.  God is not interested in listening to your pros and cons of His will, He wants obedience.

The interesting thing is that God never told Abraham what would take place up in that mountain.  He also didn’t tell him that He would bless him for his obedience.  Abraham’s obedience to God’s voice opened the door to release God’s best.  The blessing was directly connected to his obedience.  When God tells you to do something, there might be a blessing attached to it, but He won’t tell you.  He’ll wait to see if act in obedience.  If God tells us the blessing that will come to us if we obey, then we are more tempted to do it just to receive the blessing.  But God wants to know if you’ll obey Him regardless if He blesses you or not.  This is why Abraham became God’s friend.  Abraham wasn’t looking for blessings; he just wanted to get close to God.  As a result of that relationship, God blessed him beyond measure.

He will do the same for you too.  Listen to His voice and obey.  You will never know what powerful blessings obedience will unlock for you.  Like Nike’s slogan: Just do it!

 

Filed under: Devotionals by Adilson Chacón