Despite these thoughts, which I'm sure must have crossed Abraham's mind at least once, Abraham proceeded. He took a donkey, wood for a burnt offering, a knife, and his son to a mountain to make the sacrifice. Amazingly, Issac allowed his father to proceed with the offering, having complete faith in God and in his father. Just as Abraham was about to slay his son an angel stopped him. The angel said, "for now I know that thou fearest God" (Genesis 22:12). Now you may be thinking to yourself, "Oh! It was just a test to make sure that he loved God enough!" But, does God need to know if we love Him enough? He is omniscient! He knows our thoughts and our hearts! He knows more about us than we know about ourselves. So why would He test Abraham when He already knew the answer?
I once had a teacher who posed this very thought to us. Why? Why does God test us if He already knows the answer and how we will answer? Why can't He just leave us alone and know? Here is what my teacher told me: "Because Abraham needed to know something about Abraham."
I don't know what you have been through in your life, but if it's anything like mine then you have asked yourself what is going on millions of times. You may have tried your best and sought the Lord's help, but things seem very strange. You probably aren't asked to sacrifice your son, but you feel as if some of the things you have been asked to do are just as crazy. To me, this story of Abraham was incredibly motivational. I went through an entire year when I asked myself every day what was going on. When I learned about Abraham I had the strength to keep going. I didn't know what was happening, but the Lord did. Sometimes we just need to learn something about ourselves. "I needed to know something about me." Each day that I remembered this I learned a little bit something more about myself. Not all of it was good, sometimes I learned something about myself that I needed to change. In the end it was all worth it. I don't think I have learned anything more valuable than what I learned in the end. I haven't stopped learning things about myself and goodness knows that I'm not done learning things I need to change, but I learned more than I ever thought I'd learn.
This is my motivation for ordinary days. Sometimes they don't seem so ordinary, but we still need that motivation. The Lord knows everything. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses. He knows when we will rise to the challenges He places in front of us. He knows what we will and can become. He knows He wants to teach us about ourselves. So on those days when you ask why and what is going on just remember "Because Abraham needed to know something about Abraham." You will have the motivation to keep going if you know that the Lord is just trying to teach you something. So try it! I did. :)
