Then God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey.
Genesis 22:2-3a
You’ve heard me tell stories about my dog before; they are usually good stories but, alas, it is time for you to know that Rosie does have some flaws. One flaw—she doesn’t always listen. They say there is no such thing as a bad dog—just bad owners—and when it comes to instilling obedience into our dog, I’m afraid we may fall into the latter category.
Rosie listens pretty well—90% of the time. Usually when we let her out, she runs out, does her business, and when we call her, she comes racing toward us, jumps up onto the deck, slides halfway across, spins in place for a minute, then charges inside where she looks to us for a treat. But every once in a while, we will let her out and when we call her, she just looks at us. We can sound super excited; we can say “treat,” “breakfast,” “tennis ball”—in short, all of the magic words and do you know what she does? She lifts her nose in the air, takes three slow deliberate sniffs, her nose lifting a little higher with each sniff, then she tilts her head slightly sideways looking at us out of the corner of her eyes as if to say, “Make me.” Obviously we cannot do that because she’s a half acre away! It is times like this when I am usually running late that she starts acting up that I get some of my best praying in! “Lord, please just let her come. Please just let her listen.” You’ve probably had similarly panicked prayers,
Sometimes Rosie comes racing in. Other times, she turns her little furry tail towards me and races down to the neighbors—in the exact opposite direction from the house and I have to go running after her, and while dragging her back home, I am telling her how other dogs have to live outside all year round and if she doesn’t want that to happen to her .…
A while ago I was reading my Bible and it was the story of when Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain to be sacrificed. The Bible says that God told Abraham to sacrifice his son and Abraham got up the next morning and went. THE NEXT MORNING! Abraham knew what God was telling him to do. He didn’t procrastinate for three days “just to be sure” about what God was telling him. No. He got up and left. Right away.
There’s an old saying that delayed obedience isn’t obedience at all. Unfortunately, I think this means that my dog might not be obedient at all! What about us? How often do we hear the Holy Spirit’s prompting and we take time “just to be sure” when we know good and well what He is telling us.
I challenge you, the next time you hear the Holy Spirit prompting you to do something good, something that you just don’t want to do, that you not wait and instead act immediately. I think you will be glad that you did.
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