Our Story-Surrendered

Befriended, befriended by the King above all kings
Surrendered, surrendered to the friend above all friends...

Ooh, surrender. Doesn't even sound pleasant does it? Immediately pictures of white flags sticking out of windows or fox holes come to mind. Surrender goes hand in hand with "losing battles," and "falling into the hands of the enemy." But there is a different type of surrender. The friend kind. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend," the writer of Proverbs tells us. So, if we're becoming friends, "know you by your walk" kind of friends with the Creator of the Universe, then we're talking about a completely different kind of surrender. We're talking about a surrender that could change the very essence of how our story is written.

I can't think of anyone who was asked to surrender more than Abraham. Even though the Bible is full of people who lost their children, Adam, David, Job, Ruth, Mary, only one person in the Bible was asked to sacrifice their child in an act of obedience the way Abraham was.

Now, before Abraham ever had his son Isaac, God came to him and told him that he would have a son and he was to call him Isaac (Laughter). Can't think of anything funnier or horrible than being a hundred and having a baby! So the name seems perfect. But Abraham was told that it would be through this child that Abraham would become the father of many nations.

So, after Abraham and Jesus' talked about saving at least 10 righteous, Abraham and Sarah find themselves having this son God has promised. And laugh they did! And everybody else did too! As Isaac grows older we're told that God came to "prove" Abraham. He calls Abraham by name. And immediately Abraham acknowledges the call. "Here I am". I love that. Immediately, He answers. That's because he knows the voice of his friend so well... But this is a request that you wouldn't think would come from a friend. God tells him to take his son, the one he loves so much and offer him up as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains that the Lord would direct him too.

What is most powerful about this passage of scripture to me is what isn't there. Because the very next verse says, "So Abraham rose early in the morning..." What? No screaming? No shouting match to the heavens? No flayling fists and midnight bargains? Just getting up and going along as if its just another day? But that's what we read. Nowhere do we read that Abraham debated the issue of complete surrender to His Father.

Theologians will probably debate the reason for centuries. And since I'm no theologian I won't even try. I'll just give my thoughts as simple as they may be. Maybe, just maybe, there was such a depth of friendship, such a deep level of trust, in his Heavenly father, that Abraham knows somehow, someway God is going to make all of this work out. After all, God Himself had already told Abraham that it was going to be through this boy that he was going to be the father of a great nation. So, God would either stop him, or raise Isaac from the dead. But he knew God would accomplish what He said.

Surrender? Is there any greater act of it recorded in the Bible? Any clearer example of it revealed in the Word of God? And Romans tells us that "Abraham believed (trusted in) God, and it was credited to his account as righteouness." Abraham was saved through his trust in God.

Shoot, I don't know about you but some days I have trouble trusting Him to work out simple situations, lead me in my next step, provide for my next need, let alone trusting Him should He ask me to surrender something as precious as a child. So, how does Abraham get there? Relationship. God already proved His word by giving Isaac to Abraham. The first covenant God ever made was with Abraham. He brought Abraham into his secret place when they talked about the righteous people left in Sodom. Daily walking with God built a trust, a confidence, a faith in God so great that when he asked of Abraham the ultimate sacrifice, Abraham simply began walking. That too is how we get there. Relationship. Daily walking this life out with God. And through that we learn that there is nothing that He will ask of us that He won't give us the ability to do, and the resources to accomplish.

There was a sacrifice made that day, but it wasn't Isaac. No, God stayed Abraham's hand. But there was a ram that was caught in the thicket that became the sacrifice. Do you know what I've always envisioned? I've always imagined that as Abraham was walking up one side of that mountain in an act of complete surrender to His Father and Friend, God was walking up the other side of that mountain leading that ram. And if Abraham hadn't gone all the way to the top, he would have never gotten to the ram.

I'm not sure what you might be asked to surrender today. A dream maybe, your will, your illusion of control. Maybe your being asked to trust God with your child or your marriage or your finances. And holding on as tightly as you can seems far more appealing. Safe even. But are we really? Is what we hold really safer in our hands then in the hands of our Faithful Father? Or is my unwillingness to surrender causing me to miss the ram in my thicket? God won't leave us with wasted sacrifices. God honors obedient hearts. And he never asks anything of us that He doesn't give us even more in return.

Surrender changed the story. If Abraham had not walked up that mountain, but had held onto Isaac, this powerful story would have never been written. And you and I would never have this example of the faithfulness of God. Will our unwillingness to completely surrender all that we are, all that we have, to the Creator of our Souls cause someone to miss the powerful display of His love in our story? I'm guessing the answer is yes. Don't know about you, but I don't want anyone to miss how God shows up in mine...