Learning To Let Go

God's been teaching me a lot about willingness lately. Especially in the contexts of Job and everything with Abraham and Isaac in the Bible.

Abraham was in the middle of sacrificing his son, when God gave him an out because of his hearts' willingness to obey. In Genesis 22:12 God says "Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Right after, an angel of the LORD declared, "I swear by myself, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

That's what He wants from us.

Personally, I've been putting this in the context of people in my life. I value them so much, and quite honestly, sometimes above God. He's been teaching me that I need to have the willingness in my heart to drop any given friendship or person in my life in the blink of an eye, and on the contrary, to be willing to take on any form of friendship with anyone also. Super hard, but it removes any and all dependency that I have on people. WOW!

I am going through the book of Job with one of my friends on campus. Last week was our first, and I am so excited for it.

After Job's first test at the end of chapter 1, it says that, "At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head"(which symbolized grief in his culture).
"Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:

'Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.'

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing."

THAT IS SO CRAZY! It makes me think, "What the heck! That is so unnatural and bizarre... crazy."

Job FELL DOWN TO THE GROUND IN WORSHIP!!!