The Battle to Finish Part 4: The Obedience Test: Can You Lay It Down?
The Brutal Beauty of Surrendering the Very Thing God Gave You
“Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac… and offer him there as a burnt offering.’”
— Genesis 22:2 (NASB)
Some of the hardest tests God will ever give you…are not about starting something…but is worse: it’s about giving up what He gave to you.
God gave Abraham his miracle son — and then God asked for him back. Definitely NOT because God wanted Isaac dead…but because God wanted Abraham’s heart fully alive.
Did you catch that?
God wanted Abraham’s heart fully alive.
God wants YOUR heart fully alive in Him, not His hands, or His gifts, but fully alive in God. Modern take: God wants you to love Him for Him.
The terrifying truth of surrender:
Once in a while, according to God’s calling and timing, He may call you to surrender what He once blessed you with.
It could be:
The business He told you to start.
The dream He once planted.
The opportunity you prayed years for.
The children you wanted and prayed so long for.
Why?
Because what begins as a gift can quietly become an idol.
“Keep yourselves from idols.”
— 1 John 5:21 (ESV)
The greatest test is not whether you can start.
It’s whether you can let go before it destroys you.
We don’t often realize: The enemy can’t steal what you’ve already surrendered.
You’re anxious because you still think it’s yours.
You’re bitter because you think you deserve it.
You’re afraid because you think your identity depends on it.
But when you lay it down to Jesus, you’re literally and spiritually and mentally untouchable and unstoppable.
That’s why:
“Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it.”
— Matthew 16:25 (NIV)
The real spiritual warfare isn’t holding on.
The real warfare is in letting go — and trusting God to resurrect whatever He still wants alive.
Some things you lay down will die forever.
Some things you lay down will come back resurrected.
BOTH are mercy.
BOTH are victory.
AND when, not if, you can release it — you can’t be owned by it. That’s where true freedom starts.
“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.”
— Job 1:21 (NIV)
The Final Question:
If God asks for it back — can you lay it down?
That’s the obedience test.