Sacrifice
"...through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,
because you have obeyed me" Gen. 22:18.

Edith, a single missionary, served in Paraguay for 30 years. What
a sacrifice!

Justin and Miriam, Bible translators in Southeast Asia, feel despondent.
Oh, how they miss their three children away at boarding school. What a
sacrifice!

When Brian and Jennifer's stock investment brought record yields, they
gave the entire $750,000 windfall to a small mission society. What a
sacrifice!

• I will bless you.Your descendants will be as the stars in the sky and sand on the
  seashore.
• They will conquer cities and inherit the land.
• One particular offspring, the coming Savior, will bless all nations.

Although similar to the other promises, this one is delivered immediately
after Abraham obeyed God's command: "Take your son, your only son, Isaac,
whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt
offering..." (Gen. 22:2).

We can hardly fathom the heart-quake Abraham endured. What a sacrifice!
Yet Abraham's faith in God's ability to raise the dead compelled him to obey
(Heb. 11:17-19), and, in His mercy, the Lord provided a ram as a substitute
offering.

In Abraham we see sacrifice at work. In missionaries we see sacrifice at
work too. Here is my own story.

As a young pastor in Lafayette, Ind., I didn't dream of becoming a
missionary. Not at all. Instead, I had a driving passion to be published, to
see my name in print, to impact multitudes with my writing. Gradually,
however, the Holy Spirit led me to pray, "Lord, I surrender my writing dreams
to You, in order to plant churches in Venezuela."

Within two years of making that sacrifice, I was appointed
writer/producer of the Spanish Lutheran Hour office in Caracas, Venezuela. There I wrote
evangelistic radio programs and booklets for an actual listening audience of
20 million people in several countries. What a sense of humor and sense
of timing the Lord has.

Everyone who has sacrificed for the sake of God's global mission in response to what Christ has freely given us can report how the Lord provides for their needs (Mark 10:29-30) and fulfills their dreams (Eph. 3:20). If you sincerely sacrifice something to Him,
sometimes He gives it back bigger and better than you ever dreamed.

Yet we shouldn't be surprised at God's generosity. After all, at the
apex of history, He provided Jesus Christ, Abraham's promised offspring, who
gave up His life for the sins of everyone everywhere.

What a sacrifice!

With Christ's matchless sacrifice in view, David Livingstone, pioneer
missionary to Africa, declared: "People talk of the sacrifice I have made in
spending so much of my life in Africa.... Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or
danger, now and then,... may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver,...
but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with
the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a
sacrifice."

1. Describe a time when you surrendered something to the Lord.
2. What things, relationships or dreams might you need to surrender today for
   the sake of God's mission?
3. As you consider making that sacrifice, ponder these words: "So Abraham
   called that place The Lord Will Provide" (Gen. 22:14).