INSIGHT FOR TODAY 19 JULY 2024 DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE WRITTEN BY PASTOR CHUCK SWINDOLL
TOPIC: Letting Loose
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE: Genesis 22:1–2
ARE YOU BETTER AT smothering than loving? That’s why you are blown away with the thought of relaxing your gargantuan grip on the things and people you love the most. Letting something precious go is, on occasion, unbearable. The parting cannot happen without inward bleeding.
It’s hard to let go. Turning loose heightens our stress.
Like releasing a dream or allowing a child space to grow up or letting a friend have the freedom to be and to do. What maturity that requires! What a test on our insecurity!
We are often hindered from giving up our treasures out of fear for their safety. But wait. Everything is safe which is committed to our God. In fact, nothing is safe which is not so committed. No child. No job. No romance. No spouse. No friend. No dream. Need proof? Check out Abraham’s story:
Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.
“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you. – GENESIS 22:1–2
It was time to turn Isaac loose. Releasing was long overdue. Yet from Abraham’s releasing came the greatest gift . . . “God will provide a sheep” (verse 8). What is it God wants from you? I’m certain He will not ask you to lay your child on a literal altar. But He may need you to let go and allow that son or daughter to follow His call to the mission field. Or to give themselves in marriage to the one God has prepared.
Perhaps God is asking you to surrender your long-held dream to follow His plan. Or, perhaps, He’s simply asking you to trust Him with your financial future and become an obedient steward.
What’s keeping you from letting loose? Fear? Unbelief? Pride? You will never be better off outside of what God has planned for you. Better to let loose today, so you will experience His provision tomorrow. Remember the promise given to Abraham? God will provide.
Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord . . . Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved. The full devotional can be purchased at tyndale.com or wherever books are sold.