"Don't lay a hand on the boy!" the angel said. "Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son." Gen. 22:12 NLT
The Lord is eager and willing to bless His children. We do not notice, much more, enjoy the blessings of God that is already here because of our addiction to control . . . doing things our way; taking full charge of something only God can do, for a controlling heart is demanding rather than grateful. It nourishes one's wound and is deliberately inconsiderate of the wounds inflicted upon others. Sufficient, superior, silent are some costumes that a controller wears to stay in control.
It is here that spiritual surgery is urgently needed! God is the Surgeon, he cuts so we can be healed. There will be no recovery when surgery is not performed. For Abraham, God asked for Isaac. In order for Abraham to enjoy Isaac fully, he must relinquish his grip on the boy. We don't enjoy God's blessings because we grip (control) too hard. Honestly, it feels good to be always in control . . . at least to the controller. Embrace turns to choke; mentoring turns to spying; disciplining turns to caging when we don't recover from the addiction to control!
Religion takes over obedience. Quickly, it becomes a cadence of legalism at the tune of our marching command. God must intervene without violating our free will. If not for God's intervention, the controller will not even know that he is such. Thank God for His blessings of intervention . . . we find ourselves exposed, naked and for the first time, admitting we are not in control. This is a sweet music of grace, a beautiful dance, not a march . . . an opportunity for the possibility of true liberation.
At the end, Abraham did not lose Isaac the way he was slowly losing him as a ‘Controller’ dad. At Mt. Moriah, Abraham stepped back and God took over. It was there that he finally offered His addiction to control. It was there Abraham savored the blessing he almost did not fully enjoy unless He obeyed God and let go of his version of order into God's Holy Chaos. He found himself humbled and blessed! A disturbing journey to deliverance indeed. Remember, when God disturbs, we become desperately dependent upon Him to deliver us from our own self-set order. It is in this rare moment of releasing control that God’s Holy Chaos becomes a blessing!
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