Has God ever asked you to give up something precious to you?

Do you know something? You are not alone. In fact, you are in very Biblical company. I can’t think of many Bible Characters who were not asked to leave something or someone behind, to “take up their cross and follow.”
For me, over the years, the various things God has asked me to put down and to leave behind have often been the very things that people have been calling me to hold on to.
Why leave a good job?
Why stop singing?
Why not work with that charity?
Why not stay on the board of that company?
Why not?
Well, because if God says “no” then He means it!

I can look back now over the past couple of years and see, with a greater understanding, that God has shut some very significant doors for me in order to guide me through. These have felt hard and difficult at the time! I can assure you that I was not praising Him THEN for what I know NOW.

In my stupidity, I did not remember that God is doing me good all the days of my life. I thought He was spoiling my fun and forgetting about the promises He had given me. But He WASN’T and He ISN’T.

Abraham was a total dude wasn’t he? But remember that God told him to KILL the actual fulfilment of the promise God himself had made to him. Does that make sense to you?? It certainly doesn’t to me. But God was interested in Abraham’s FAITH and his ability to obey.

When Abraham lifted that knife to his own son’s throat, God knew with all His heart that this man would do ANYTHING God asked of him.

What you give up in order to serve God is nothing compared to what you will get back. Do you know that? Truly KNOW it in your heart?

My UCB notes this morning spoke this truth SO clearly to me today. Listen to this!

‘Peter answered and said to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You”…So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you…you who have followed Me…And…left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life”‘ (Matthew 19:27-29 NKJV). That means God can give you back a hundred times more than what you’ve sacrificed in order to serve Him. Are you feeling weak and ineffective today?

Read these words and stand on them: ‘Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense [restoration]…He will come and save you” (Isaiah 35:3-4 NKJV). You say, ‘But I have lost my joy.’ God can give it back to you in overflowing measure: ‘And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away’ (v. 10 NKJV).

You say, ‘But I have so little to show for my efforts.’ Then stand on this promise: ‘…And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly…’ (vv. 1-2 NKJV). Rejoice; your God is a God of restoration, so your best days are ahead of you!”

If i had a verse that described me right now it would be this one from Isaiah 35:
“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

I have not been singing. I have not had everlasting joy. I have had sorrow and sadness. But not any more!

I am coming back. I am blessed and upheld. I am favoured and good things are on my horizon. Why?
Because I know deep down in my spirit that what I gave up in order to serve God is nothing compared to what He has planned for me now and in my future.

God is looking for those He wants to bless. So many of the words of the BIble speak about blessing in the past tense. Deuteronomy 2:7 says
“The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you and you have not lacked anything.”

What a declaration!
Notice it does NOT say, ” The Lord will bless you”¦ or He is about to.” It says He HAS. It is done. Walk in it. Walk it out.