I love You back

Death to self…

I never quite knew what that meant until I moved to Orlando. What exactly does “dying to yourself” mean? I would hear people say that this is the beginning of death to self and then there’s a continual dying. I’m like, what? That sounds awful. I had no idea what they were talking about, but…let me tell you, I soon found out. Everything that I esteemed higher than God in my life was revealed and I was given the beautiful opportunity to surrender it back to Him and die to my expectations, my timelines, and what I thought was best. They became idols. No matter how taboo the word idol is nowadays, I’m gonna call it as it is. Anything that takes the throne of our heart over God is an idol. God must have preeminence as it says in Colossians 1:18.

Oh, almost forgot! Happy New Year!! It’s 2024. Wowzers. For some reason as I’m typing this I’m preventing tears from falling. 2023 was a grandiose year for sure. I don’t have the capacity to share in detail but trust me when I say that with everything that happened, Jesus revealed Himself as my Savior. We truly serve a faithful God.

Now to the meat. 😊 Every year, as I always write, the Lord will give me a word for the year. So as the new year was approaching and I spent time with the Lord, He didn’t say anything about it. He would continue to lead me through the Word. Afterwards I’m like, ok I’m patient. Maybe You will just wait to speak something specific as I’m reading or highlight a verse. Nada. A couple days went by and as I’m on my knees the morning of the new year, I ask. I say, Lord, what are You speaking to me this year? He then flashed through my memory the past few years. Then He reminded me what He spoke and revealed for 2023. This is your comeback. As I’m pondering all these things, I’m like, wow. You’ve done so much in my life, especially this past year. How can I thank You for it all? He is truly my Savior! He is Messiah! As I’m thanking Him, these words came out of my mouth, “I LOVE YOU BACK!” Jesus, I love You back.” And then it became the cry of my heart. Jesus, I love You back!! You already displayed the greatest love of all. You gave Your life. You left heaven to die for me. It is already finished. Love is a person and it’s You, Jesus. Love came and died and rose again for me. John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God is love. Jesus is God. Love did. Love does. Love died so that we can have eternal life. So I said to Him, this year Jesus and for the rest of my life, I love You back. I surrender my all. I die to myself. I surrender everything. I will live the First and Greatest Commandment to the max. I love You with all my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength. I’ll love You with everything that I am. Life is meaningless without You. I can’t live without Your love. So 2024, I love You back. Instead of waiting to anticipate what You will do in my life, I offer You my life. I’m sorry that I ever strayed from the simplicity of just loving You. You are enough. Jesus, You gave Your life so I give You mine in return. Again and again. This is what I will do for You. I was then reminded of the Scriptures the Lord would continue to lead me to read every day. He would lead me to Genesis to read about Abraham and Sarah. In Genesis 12:1-3 God speaks to Abraham promises over his life. At that time, he was called Abram. “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” Abram obeyed the Lord and did as He asked. Once he left, the Lord came to Abram in a vision and said in Genesis 15:1-6, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Abram knew he was childless, and the Lord said, “but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” The Lord spoke to Abram twice what He would fulfill through his life. God made it so clear, and Abraham believed. Now here comes the process and testing of time. Ten years after the Lord spoke to Abram, his wife Sarai had still not yet given birth to a child. So Sarai suggested Abram have a son through her maidservant, Hagar. The Scripture says, “Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.” Mistake? Yes! Remember what I just mentioned…God already spoke to Abram about his heir. Why did he listen to the voice of his wife instead? I have to mention one example where this happened before. Does Adam and Eve ring a bell? Remember when the Lord spoke to Adam about not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and who did the serpent convince? Eve, his wife. Eve gave the fruit to Adam to eat and then came the fall of man. Abram listened to the voice of Sarai, and out comes Ishmael. No bueno! Remember what God has said to you. Now in Genesis 17, Ishmael is 13 years old and Abram is 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Abraham asks if Ishmael would live under God’s blessing, but in verse 19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.” Again, in chapter 18 the Lord spoke of Abraham’s promised son. Sarah laughs and God calls her out. Haha. God is funny, ya’ll! He’s legit. Verse 14 says, “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” Fast forward to chapter 21:1-2, “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.” Look at God! I love that it says, “the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken”. God is faithful and keeps His promises. This is one attribute of God that has caused me to cling to Him when I have nothing else but His Word. It’s so important to know His voice, to know what He is saying, and to remember what He has said. His words will stand the test of time. Above all else! Matthew 24:35 says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My WORDS will by no means pass away.” You can trust what Jesus says. What blows my mind is that Isaac’s name means laughter. Genesis 21:5-7 reads, “Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, ‘God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.’ She also said, ‘Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.” Who has the final say?! God! Yes! This makes me want to run. Sarah knew the statistics. People don’t have children in their old age. BUT who has the final say? The Creator of the universe. The One who forms you in the womb. This God makes the impossible, possible. Nothing is too hard for Him!

Now its time for the dessert. Go to Genesis 22. This section is titled “Abraham’s Faith Confirmed” in my NKJV, and in NLT it is “Abraham’s Faith Tested”. Hmmm. Interesting right? It’s amazing that the testing of our faith also confirms our faith. I’m going to get scholastic on y’all just because it just came to me, but when you take a test in school, doesn’t the test confirm the knowledge that you have about the material that’s being tested? The same goes with our faith. It’s often, well almost always tested to confirm the faith that we have or lack thereof. Yep. For some that may be hard to swallow. Ok. Verse 1. “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Take now 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 of which I shall tell you.” I’m going to paraphrase until verse 8, but Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled the donkey, took two young men, Isaac, the wood for the offering and left. On the third day Abraham saw the place from afar off and then left the two young men behind. He told them to stay while he and Isaac went up to worship and they will come back. So they continued and Isaac asks Abraham a question. Isaac says, Father, here is the wood and the fire but where’s the lamb for the offering? Verse 8. “And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together.“ Paraphrasing again here. They came to the place, Abraham built the altar, laid Isaac on the altar, stretched out his hand with the knife to kill his son, and then the Angel of the Lord calls out, “Abraham, Abraham!” Abraham answers and in verse 12, He said, “Do not lay a hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” This is so amazing to me. There are a couple things I want to point out about Abraham and God. I’ve loved studying Abraham’s life because it’s provoked me in a way that I never expected. God spoke to Abraham about His promise to make him a great nation, the descendants that will come from him, and the land that his descendants will possess. Abraham believed every word God said. Abraham’s faith was tested through time and though he bore Ishmael, God’s promise of Isaac still came. After Isaac was born, God then tested Abraham’s heart. Does Abraham love the Lord more than what the Lord promised him, his son? Also, does Abraham believe what the Lord spoke to him about his heir? Let’s go back to when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. In that moment did Abraham question what God said about the covenant made between him and his descendants after him? When he told the two young men to stay behind because he and Isaac were going to go up to worship and come back, Abraham had to believe one thing. Abraham had to stake his son’s life on the words that God spoke to him. That yes, I know the Lord asked me to sacrifice my son, but He also said that through this promised son would come many nations. I know from my past that I can trust God to provide a lamb for sacrifice instead of my son. God does not lie. So instead of worrying or standing in fear, I’m going to believe in the Lord. I remember Sodom and how the Lord did not hide from me His plan to destroy the city, but spared my nephew. Even more so, I’m going to believe in the Lord. I believe when God said, is anything too hard for the Lord? I believe in the Lord, so I’m going to take my son and worship. Wow. Abraham’s love and trust in the Lord withstood his circumstances. Abraham loved God more than anything in the world, even if that meant losing his promised son. God is still good. Abraham loved God back. Abraham knew that his only option was to obey what God had said. Because of his faith and obedience, Abraham became the father of many nations and the generational line through whom our Savior was born. King Jesus!

Remember what God has spoken to you. Bind His words continually on your heart and tie them around your neck. His words will stand the test of time. Love the Lord without restraint. Climb the mountain of surrender. You must first die to yourself in order to experience true life. Life is found in Love, Jesus.