Sundays on the Way

On today's blog, we'll be putting a new twist on an old story. It is the Bible story of Abraham & Isaac. Alot of you out there probably have already heard it but for those of you that haven't, I'll summarize it.  Abraham, who is in his 90's and childless one day receives a promise from God through some angelic messengers that he is going to have a child even in his own age. Eventually the prophecy comes to pass and his wife Sarah gives birth to Isaac.

Abraham rears Isaac with the hope that this heir will produce many descendants and generations to come. But one day it seems like Abraham's hopes are dashed when God comes to him and says to him that he would like Abraham to take his only son, the son of promise and sacrifice him to God on an altar.

Broken hearted but obedient, Abraham takes his son and puts him on an altar and gets ready to kill him. But just before he can strike his son, an angel appears to Abraham and tells him not to do this and that this was only a test to see if he will obey God no matter what. And because of Abraham's obedience, God keeps his promise to Abraham and makes him the father to what we know today as the Jewish people.

I was imagining that Abraham, knowing that Isaac was the child of promise must have taken extra special care and attention in Isaac's upbringing. It's been the same for me on this journey, there have been special areas in my life where I feel God's told me that he's going to put his blessings on and there will be a fruitful outcome. The three specific areas where I feel God has highlighted are firstly in my area of finances. Secondly in my dealings in Argentina and the vision for teaching english. And the third area is an interesting one, it is actually my relationship with my best friend in Argentina, Marisa. I do feel that God has some amazing stuff planned for this bond between us and this is a relationship that I should give special care and attention to.

Treasuring all this promises that have been placed on my heart, I have given special care and attention to everyone of these areas and made sure that I always gave the best of me.  I feel like I've been caring and nurturing each of these things like a tender plant, even when I haven't seen the fruit of my labor.  Then one nite in my prayer time, I felt a strong sense to give these things back to God just the way Abraham did. I felt God wanted me to be willing to let go of these things in my heart and even be OK with it if none of the visions ever got realized.  So that is exactly what I did, I took all these visions that I had been cherishing and said "God, I just release it back to you. I'm not going to hold on to it."

That happened on Sept 3rd, one year to the day that I left my job. I was in a position where my financial situation did not look good, I no longer had a job, and I was no where close to getting to Argentina. In short, I it looked like I had absolutely nothing left. But I placed my future in God's hands and decided to trust him regardless of whether my dreams would get realized or not.

When I woke up the next day, there was a different feeling in the air.  It felt like I had passed some kind of test. And I heard a voice speak to my heart "Angelina this whole thing was a test to see if you would be willing to lose everything for me".  And  I realized that God stripped everything away from me to see what was in my heart. But I felt that now God was saying "Well done!"

It got even better from there. My parents came to visit me where I was staying and that Sat nite, my fridge got filled with groceries. By the end of the day Sunday, there was groceries in my fridge as well as a couple of hundred dollars worth of visa gift cards.  I got to go out to a Sunday brunch buffet at the fireside grill. And to top it off, they brought up the subject of supporting me through prayer and finances for my life in Argentina.  Long story short, these are people I have a strained relationship with so when we connect, I actually don't expect any kind of support and I don't bring it up. It was all their idea to want to do these things for me.

Two days ago, I readily surrendered all my hopes, dreams, and visions to God only to find out that it was really just a test to see what was in my heart. I passed the test and pleased God. Now I'm in a new season where there is incredible favor, blessing, finances, and resources for anything I want to do. Like Abraham, I placed my dream at the altar and was ready to let it die only to have God give it right back to me in ways I cannot imagine. It may be Friday but Sunday's on the way.....

Ordinary Ways to Learn a Language Extraordinarily Fast