Until All on The Altar We Lay | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Until All on The Altar We Lay | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lisa Enqvist
07/27/16
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Morning prayers at my school in the 1950ies were compulsory for all students from kindergarten to senior high school, regardless of background or religion. I had no problem with that. Still, it seemed that some of the teachers who led the morning prayers loved a particular hymn that upset me each time I heard it.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Although the outward circumstances of my childhood were often chaotic, having moved numerous times with my missionary parents, I had imbibed their faith in a loving God. Yet the word ‘obey’ was like an irritating piece of gravel in my shoe. I couldn’t get rid of it.

There were moments at morning prayers as we prayed the Lord’s Prayer together when the words “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” changed to “Thy will be done in my heart as it is in heaven.”

The struggle often was hard. I thought I had surrendered to God’s will several times, and then found myself protesting against certain things all over again. Why could I not let Him have His way with me?

Once again, after a surrender – the hardest one so far – I was afraid I might not be able to obey God when the difficult days came. Would I be ready to trust God and obey him even when the road ahead looked like a dead-end?

At a wedding, I heard the words from Psalms 118:27.
“The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! (ESV)

That meant commitment, not just surrender. Commitment to love, not to fear. I prayed that God would bind my sacrifice, my surrender, with cords to the horns of the altar he had placed before me. I wondered what type of ropes he would have to use to keep me there. I found the answer in Hosea: “I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love.” Hosea 11:4 (ESV)

The example of Abraham’s obedience and trust in God is amazing, even in the situation when God seemed to demand the impossible.

“When they arrived at the place where God had told Abraham to go, he built an altar and placed the wood in order, ready for the fire, and then tied Isaac and laid him on the altar over the wood.” Genesis 22:9 (TLB)

“While God was testing him, Abraham still trusted in God and his promises, and so he offered up his son Isaac and was ready to slay him on the altar of sacrifice; yes, to slay even Isaac, through whom God had promised to give Abraham a whole nation of descendants! He believed that if Isaac died God would bring him back to life again; and that is just about what happened, for as far as Abraham was concerned, Isaac was doomed to death, but he came back again alive!” Hebrews 11:17-19 (TLB)

Slowly, slowly, the words of the old song began to shine with new meaning.

But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

Sometimes still the irritating gravel gets into my shoe, making it difficult to walk in obedience. One version of Ephesians 6:15 (LEB) refers to the need of “binding shoes under your feet with the preparation of the good news of peace” as part of our armor and equipment when we face all kinds of challenges in life when we surely need to trust and obey. Ephesians 6:13-19 (LEB)

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