Joy For The Ashes ...

Do you pray for miracles?

I guess that's a silly question.   We all want to see miracles happen in our lives. 

I pray almost daily for miracles of all sorts. 

There is a story in Genesis about Abraham and Sarah.   They had given up on having a child, yet in their old age God blessed them with a miracle baby!

They even named this baby Isaac, because even the idea of being pregnant in her 90's made Sarah laugh out loud.

Isaac's name means laughter.

Today we would say she LOL'd. 

He was the joy of her life.

His very existence brought joyfulness and happiness and gladness into their lives.

The miracle she had prayed for unceasingly in her younger and barren years ... the miracle she had given up on ever happening ... she now held in her arms.

God had answered their prayers in His own time and for His own purpose. 

In the process, He also proved to Abraham and Sarah that He could do anything.

Anything.

He proved that nothing was impossible for Him.

Then one day God asked Abraham to do something impossible.  

He asked Abraham to take Isaac up on the mountain and offer him as a burnt offering ... as if Isaac was a lamb or sheep intended solely for sacrificial purposes.

The Bible doesn't go into the detail about how this affected Abraham and Sarah.   Yet I can't help but think that they cried and grieved, heartbroken beyond belief.

Even so, in agony,  Abraham set out with Isaac the following day being fully obedient to God.

After 3 days they reached the mountain and prepared to make the sacrifice. 

His heart breaking, he placed Isaac on the altar they had both prepared, and raised his knife to slaughter his miracle.

That's when God intervened.   That's when He provided a ram for the offering. 

That's when God told Abraham "By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld  your son, your only son - blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.  In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." (Genesis 22: 16-18 NKJV)

Let me paraphrase: "... because you were obedient ...because you have not withheld your miracle son, I will bless you."

And then there's this:

Agonizing on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed that this painful cup might be removed from Him, yet He prayed also "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."  (Matthew 26:39 NKJV)

He laid the requested miracle at the feet of the Father and accepted the answer, whatever that might be.

At the time, crucifixion looked like a horrible end ... a tragedy.

It didn't look much like a miracle to anyone.

Yet God used His precious Son's obedient and willing death on a cross as a boon for all mankind.  

He substituted His life for ours.

We pray for miracles.   Are we willing to lay them on the altar?

Are we ready and obedient to give up the miracle He has provided or that we have prayed for simply because He may have another plan or purpose?   Simply because He asks,  regardless of how we may feel about it?

Are we so set on having our own way that we don't even recognize the answered prayer because it doesn't look like what we asked for?

I am not Jesus.  I am no Abraham.  I'm not even a Sarah.  

Yet I knew their story and how God provided.  How God performed impossible miracles for them.

Years ago, I had been praying for my husband and our marriage.  I prayed for years.  I had been asking for a miracle from God in our marriage, in my husband's heart and in mine.  

I finally and fearfully, scared to death, not knowing what the outcome might be, laid it on the altar as a sacrifice and prayed "Lord God!  I don't know what it's going to take, but You do!"

I left it there with Him.

Within two months, my husband left and my heart and spirit was shattered.

No way was this the miracle that I had prayed for!  It looked and felt like death to me.

But even as I brokenly cried out to God in pain, I prayed that He would use this heartbreak some how, some way.

Now, years later, I look back and see God.

He healed my broken heart and set my feet on solid ground.

He held me.  He holds me still.

He provides for me every step of the way.

He made me see myself - beautiful in His eyes.

He taught me to trust Him completely.

He fulfilled my lifelong dreams and has given me joy and wonder for the ashes of my prayed for miracle.

He took my measure of faith and increased it.  Multiplying, He multiplied.

He blessed me.

What is precious?

What is your miracle?   The one you are praying for or the one that you have received.  The thing you hold so dear you would give your life for it.

If asked, would you offer it back to Him?  Give Him complete nevertheless authority over it?

So that He can bless you.

Holy Father, God of all creation.  God of the past, present and the future, Lord I pray to always hold loosely to the things of this world and cling tightly to You.  I pray that I have faithful obedience to You in all my ways.  And may You multiply and bless myself and my family.  In Jesus' precious Name. Amen.