Obedience

Sometimes I feel a tugging at my soul.  A sense that I'm supposed to do something.  Something specific.

There are times that I think the Lord is telling me to take a step in one direction, obey, make some sort of sacrifice.  Usually it involves time.  My time.  My plans.

Then it hits me (again) that it never has been My time or My plans.  Those have always belonged to the One. The Creator.

I think of Abraham in the Bible.  God told Abraham to leave the country he knew and go to a foreign land.  God told Abraham to believe that his wife would bear a son, even though she was "too old".

God told Abraham to sacrifice this only son. 

And Abraham took steps in the direction that the Lord wanted him to go.  He went up on the mountain and took his knife to slay Isaac...

And the Lord said, "Stop!  Now you don't have to do what I asked because I know you still love and fear me.  Thank you for obeying."  (Heidi's paraphrase - you can read the real version in Genesis 22.)

At times in my life, it seems that the Lord says something similar. 

He hasn't told me to sacrifice my children.  He hasn't told me to leave my country.  However, He has told me to give up my plans and give of my time, no, His precious time, to reach out to others in word and in deed. 

And when I take that step in obedience, there are times that I am to do what the Lord asked of me, but occasionally the Lord won't require it of me after all.

It seems like he's saying, "Stop!  Now you don't have to do what I asked because I know you still love and fear me.  Thank you for obeying."