faith to give up sin that we love

Genesis 22

v2

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only [son] Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Obviously, this passage does not mean that the Lord wants us to go out and start to kill somebody like this now-a-days; and, obviously, parents should love and take care of their children. However, I do think that there are several points that can help us make a good practical application from Genesis 22.

For one thing, this was something that the Lord had said to Abraham. That means that Abraham could be sure that it was the Lord who said it, and that it was what the Lord wanted him to do. God doesn't usually speak to us with an audible voice from heaven now-a-days, but He does speak. By spending time in His Word, we can hear Him tell us, clearly, exactly what He wants us to do. When there is something that we are sure the Lord has said to us, and that He wants us to do, we should have the faith to do that thing.

Next, the Lord was asking Abraham to give up something that he loved, and something that he seemed to need for his future to work out, even the way that the Lord had promised. Sometimes the Lord asks us to give up something (like a sin) that is the one thing that we really love , that is really hard for us to give up, and we might not even be able to understand how things could work out if we did. But, if we know from the Word that God wants us to do that, we need to have the faith to obey.