A Painful Surrender - Treasures of Faith - Week 5 Day 2

TODAY'S TREASURE

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

Hebrews 11:20

Transcript

A Painful Surrender

Chuck and Sharon Betters

 Today’s Treasure

 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. 

Hebrews 11:20

There are moments when obedience to God is not only costly—it feels like a piece of your heart has been ripped away. Yet, in those places of pain, when our trust in God's promises surpasses our longing to understand, faith is born. Isaac’s story reminds us that surrendering our deepest desires—even our children—to God’s will is one of the highest forms of worship.

Denise’s story opens our eyes to this kind of surrender. When she held her newborn son, she knew she wanted to raise him to love and honor God. But her husband, Paul, was not on the same path. The more she pushed, pleaded, and prayed, the more their marriage unraveled. Denise entered a women’s Bible study reluctantly, assuming she had already “arrived” spiritually. But what she discovered was far more life-changing than she expected: God didn’t want to change her husband—He wanted to change her.

That realization sparked a long, painful journey. Why wasn’t her husband saved? Why did every other family seem “together”? Her prayers were focused on one outcome: “Lord, save my husband, and I’ll be happy.” But God gently redirected her heart. Through biblical counseling and Scripture, especially 1 Peter 3, Denise learned her call was not to change Paul but to reflect Christ to him—quietly, respectfully, and faithfully.

Her surrender wasn’t instant. Denise admitted she obeyed reluctantly, often kicking and screaming through God’s lessons. But step by step, she let go of her idol: her dream of a perfect, believing husband. Instead, she clung to God’s promise that He was enough. Her life became a testimony, not because of loud proclamations but through quiet obedience. Over eleven years, God was at work, and eventually, Paul came to Christ. The joy was immense—but the transformation in Denise was the real miracle.

Isaac’s surrender mirrors this lesson. He longed to bless Esau, his favored son, even though God had chosen Jacob. When he realized he had been deceived by Jacob and Rebekah, Isaac “trembled violently”. Yet he did not reverse the blessing. In that trembling moment, Isaac surrendered to God’s sovereign plan. He let go of his personal preference to embrace God’s higher purposes.

The lesson is powerful: sometimes we must surrender what we want most—even good, godly desires—so that God's perfect plan can unfold. Whether it’s a child, a marriage, a dream, or an expectation, true faith requires surrender.

Hebrews 11 is filled with people who struggled to walk in obedience, and Isaac is no exception.

At first glance, Isaac resembles a “back-pew” Christian who was raised in the church, exposed to sound doctrine and exciting, living faith in the persons of his mother, Sarah, and his father, Abraham. Like his father, Isaac was always on the road, living in tents, and doubtless his father taught him about God and His promises as the family traveled together (Hebrews 11:9; Genesis 26:2, 24). Isaac, despite the benefit of his father’s example and teaching, remains something of a spiritual mediocrity. His life story can seem a little drab, sandwiched as it is between colorful Abraham and the rascally, sensational Jacob.

Isaac, however, was no “ordinary” man in God’s eyes. Isaac was the necessary link God had chosen through whom to transfer His covenantal promises from one generation to the next. As with other members of God’s family, Isaac’s life and behavior reveal a sinful heart eventually transformed by— and surrendering to—God’s grace. Remember, Hebrews 11 is not filled with the exhortation, “Be like…..Abraham, Isaac, etc.” Instead, we see flawed men and women, transformed for eternal purposes by God’s grace, each transformation designed to turn our hearts toward Jesus, not the strength of the story’s characters.

As we said, Isaac’s story might seem drab at first glance, but in reality, Isaac’s life was remarkable in many ways. As we learned in the last chapter, he was the “child of promise”; his birth was nothing short of a miracle, and he was raised by a father who was the very “friend” of God (Isaiah 41:8). He was the child through whom all of the promises of the covenant would be transferred to God’s people. But like us, Isaac had his own plan for how this would happen. And obedience to God’s purposes did not come easily.

LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT

As we dig a little deeper into Isaac’s life, consider your own heart and whether there are idols you are so accustomed to worshiping that you have become completely unaware of your sin. Let’s pray together for our Father to open our spiritual eyes to see where we are depending on someone or something other than our Savior, minimizing our worship of Him.

PRAYER

Father, thank You for Isaac, this flawed man whose story has the power to open our own eyes to those idols, seemingly good for us, that have turned our eyes and hearts away from trusting You alone. Amen

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Adapted from Treasures of Faith by Chuck and Sharon Betters with permission from P&R Publishing

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