Artwork by Donella

Happy Birthday Anthony!

Spiritual Maturity Comes With A Price

Read: Genesis 22

The son that was promised now God wanted to sacrifice - can you imagine the struggle of Abraham?

Abraham did not have all the answers or the significance of what was about to happen but trusted by faith that God would not let him down. He didn't know how God would play this out but what is even more amazing to me is the willingness of Isaac to be sacrificed. What a wonderful picture of how Christ was willing to die for us and trusted his Heavenly Father to know what was best for all of us.

As a parent, I make decisions that maybe one child likes and the other doesn't and getting them to see that I am looking out for the family as a whole is not in their realm of thinking; only how my decisions apply to them personally. Now some day that will all change as they mature and have children of their own because that is when I began to see my own parents so differently.

The lesson that I value most in this story is the importance of maturity, especially spiritual maturity to be able to see every situation in my life as something that God feels is best overall even when it is not at all evident to me. This is something I need to work on daily and continue in my trust and faith and in order to do that, I have to continue in God's Word and continue walking in God's will - no matter how the circumstances may look!

Let's face it, most of the time things look bad, scary, out of control, hectic and many other negative emotions that fill our minds. If God is in control of our lives as we claim then these are the times to shine for His Glory! God puts things in our lives because He believes we have the courage to handle it!

"Empress" of Hurricanes