Genesis 22:16-18 (NKJV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026\u2019By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son\u2014 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.’\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wow! Obedience yields blessings in abundant measures. It is amazing what God will do for those who will trust and obey. Look at those blessings: blessings for the present, blessings for the future; blessings for Abraham, blessings for Abraham\u2019s descendants; blessings temporal, blessings spiritual. Even blessings that extend to \u201call the nations of the earth.\u201d Isn\u2019t this incredible? God did not just declare blessings; He swore it! Why this extreme response from the Almighty? He says to Abraham: \u201cBecause you have not withheld your son, your only son\u2026because you have obeyed My voice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obedience may seem painful in the short term, but the floods of blessings that follow afterward are beyond comparison. Don\u2019t withhold from God. Don\u2019t hold back. Give what is precious to you and watch Him respond. God responds to sacrifice, and God responds extremely to extreme sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God\u2019s blessings are waiting for me. Will I \u201cobey it\u201d into my life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes Father, I will obey Your blessings into my life. I know You are lavish with Your blessings to them who believe and follow. So, Lord, I choose the path of Abraham, to obey You, even if it seems extreme. But I ask that Jesus enables me to stick with the vow. In His name, I pray. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Genesis 22:16-18 (NKJV) \u201c\u2026\u2019By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son\u2014 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-genesis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Genesis.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5133,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5131\/revisions\/5133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}