Prayer 556 - Week 1, Thursday

February 24th, 2021

Thursday - A Sacrificial Fire

We’re almost through our first week - pause for just a moment before you read today’s passage and give thanks to God. Can you name 3 things that you are grateful for? They don’t have to be anything big, just sincere. Tell God how grateful you are.

This morning, we will move back into Genesis for the story of Abraham, his son Isaac, and the story of a sacrificial fire.

Read.

Genesis 22:1-8 & 14

“God said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am!”

God said, “take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you.”

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him.

On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and knife. So the two of them walked together.

Isaac said to his father, “Father!“
And he said, “Here I am, son!”

Isaac said, ”The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

...So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide” (or, ”The Lord will See to It”). “

Reflect/Journal.

Have you ever offered yourself to God at the start of a day - offering your words, actions, events of the day, thoughts, annoyances, stress, and everything to him?

Are you willing to try that this morning? What do you think might change if you approached your day with this mindset?

Is there something in your life right now that God is asking you to lay down/sacrifice? What makes you hesitate about surrendering that thing?

Can you pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you let it go?

Pray.

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you
as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

Lord, help us answer your call as readily as our father Abram that we might extend your blessing throughout our community. Remind us that the places where we find you become altars in our world. Amen.

-Book of Common Prayer

4 Comments

Add Your Comment

Nikki Wood - February 25th, 2021 at 4:10am

I feel like I am good at the giving thanks to God but struggle in the sacrifice part. I want to get better at that and will be adding this prayer "Lord, help us answer your call as readily as our father Abram that we might extend your blessing throughout our community. Remind us that the places where we find you become altars in our world. Amen." To my daily prayers!

Nick Tebordo - February 25th, 2021 at 4:23am

This morning meeting for prayer and reflection has been fruitful. I find myself thinking about God's Fire a lot . Wherever God meets us becomes an altar. That is an interesting thought. I am reading a book by Chuck Pierce about Fresh Fire on the altar. He speaks about the need for the Fire to burn continually. Today, I hear my Savior call for daily dying to self. "Take up your cross daily." When Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, it seemed unbelievable. How could God ask that? The long awaited child of promise! It was Abraham's willingness that God was looking for-his willingness to lay that which was most precious to him down before God. Jesus asked the same thing in a way-that we love Him more than mother or father or in the case of the rich young ruler -his money. Lord, by your grace in the power of the Holy Spirit, I lay my life before You trusting as Abraham said, that "God will provide". Many believe that Mount Moriah is also the hill called Mount Calvary where God did indeed provide! "Repent for the Kingdom of God is here.

susan Blais - February 25th, 2021 at 4:36am

Lord, I failed miserably yesterday, I know it and you know it. I lost my temper I got aggravated at the taxes and I just behave like a miserable unhappy child. I want today to go differently. I do want to sacrifice my day to you. Please remind me as a go about my day come at that I need to be with you, in you, and aware of your presence. I am so thankful for this day another chance to do better. And. For dialysis, as strange as that may seem, and for my husband who is my dialysis technician. For without these three things, my life would be as dust. Amen. I can't imagine Abraham bringing his only son to the mountain as a sacrifice to the Lord. I know I only have one son, and I don't know how I would feel if the Lord asked me to do that. The scripture doesn't really talk about how Abraham felt, but just that Abraham obeyed. I can't imagine what was going through his mind at this time, but he was willing to obey, and that makes all the difference in the world. Help me Lord to be obedient to your will. To obey your word, and seek your Holy Spirit help in obeying what you ask me to do.

Linda Comstock - February 25th, 2021 at 7:28am

There's so much to be thankful for. Most importantly my salvation, for Jesus, His beautiful creation and for the husband He gave me. Obedience is a tough one for me. I do finally get around to saying yes Lord I will do Your will. Burn off the dross Lord that I may be pure in thought and deed, that there would be more of You and less of me. I think of Isaac and what may have been going through his mind as his father tied him up then placed him on the pile of wood. He was trusting his human father. May I be as trusting in my God.