You know how when you go to a birthday party everyone puts their presents on one table? God’s people would put their presents to Him on something like a table. These presents were called sacrifices, and the table was called an altar. When you give someone a gift, it doesn’t belong to you anymore. You had to give it up to give it as a present.

What if God asked you to give Him something that you loved a lot and wanted to keep for yourself? That is exactly what happened to Abraham after waiting so long for God to give him the gift of a son. God asked Abraham to give Him his son, Isaac, as a gift. God didn’t really want Abraham to give up his son. God wanted to make sure that Abraham still loved Him more than anything else.

Abraham got up early the next morning and packed his bags for the trip. Isaac, their donkey and two of Abraham’s workers left with him for the place where God had told him to go. After three days of traveling they reached the mountain. Abraham told his workers, “You stay here. The boy and I will go worship God and then come back.” Abraham’s words showed his faith.

As Abraham and Isaac climbed the mountain, Isaac noticed that they had not brought a present to offer to God. “Father,” he asked, “we have everything but the lamb for the sacrifice. Where is it?”

“My son,” Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb.” Again, Abraham’s words showed his faith.

Abraham was all ready to give his son as a gift to God. But the Lord’s angel shouted from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am!” he answered.

“Don’t give up the boy!” the angel said. “Now I know that you love God more than your son.”

God put a ram in the bush and told Abraham to give Him the ram as a gift instead.

Sometimes God may really want us to give up things that we love, like candy, nice clothes, or toys, because they’re getting in the way of our love for Him. But other times making sacrifices to God doesn’t mean getting rid of something. It may mean just being willing to give it up if you had to. God wants to know that He is first in our lives and we would give up anything for Him.

God wants us to follow His instructions and trust Him. We can trust God to only ask us to do what is right. If we are faithful to Him, He will take care of us.