December 2016
correct the perversion that existed in your love. Now
you may have the boy, sound and well. Take him and
go back to your tent. “For now I know that you fear
God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your
only son, from me.” Then heaven opened and a voice
was heard saying to him, “By myself I have sworn,
declares the Lord, because you have done this and
have not withheld your son, your only son, I will
surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your
offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is
on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the
gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed, because you have
obeyed my voice (Gene 22:16-18).”
The old man of God lifted his head to respond
to the Voice, and stood there on the mount strong and
pure and grand, a man marked out by the Lord for
special treatment, a friend and favorite of the Most
High. Now he was a man wholly surrendered, a man
utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing. He
had concentrated his all in the person of his dear son,
and God had taken it from him. God could have
begun out on the margin of Abraham's life and
worked inward to the center; He chose rather to cut
quickly to the heart and have it over in one sharp act
of separation. In dealing thus He practiced an
economy of means and time. It hurt cruelly, but it was
effective. I have said that Abraham possessed
nothing. Yet was not this poor man rich? Everything
he had owned before was still his to enjoy: sheep,
camels, herds, and goods of every sort. He had also
his wife and his friends, and best of all he had his son
Isaac safe by his side. He had everything, but he
possessed nothing.
There is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet
theology of the heart which can be learned only in the
school of renunciation. The books on systematic
theology overlook this, but the wise will understand.
After that bitter and blessed experience I think the
words “my” and “mine” never had again the same
meaning for Abraham. The sense of possession
which they connote was gone from his heart. Things
had been cast out forever. They had now become
external to the man. His inner heart was free from
them. The world said, “Abraham is rich,” but the
aged patriarch only smiled. He could not explain it to
them, but he knew that he owned nothing, that his real
treasures were inward and eternal.
There can be no doubt that this possessive
clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in
the life. Because it is so natural, it is rarely recognized
for the evil that it is; but its outworkings are tragic.
We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to
the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is especially
true when those treasures are loved relatives and
friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord
came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe
which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe
which is not so committed.Our gifts and talents
should also be turned over to Him. They should be
recognized for what they are, God's loan to us, and
should never be considered in any sense our own. We
have no more right to claim credit for special abilities
than for blue eyes or strong muscles. “ For who sees
anything different in you? What do you have that you
did not receive?”(1 Cor 4:7).
The Christian who is alive enough to know
himself even slightly will recognize the symptoms of
this possession malady, and will grieve to find them
in his own heart. If the longing after God is strong
enough within him he will want to do something
about the matter.
Now, what should he do?
First of all he should put away all defense and
make no attempt to excuse himself either in his own
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