Sometimes we may sing or pray about giving God our all. But, do we realize what that really means or are we simply mouthing words that sound good? Giving our all, everything. But do we realize exactly what that means?
There is often one or more areas that we are hesitant to give up, consciously or subconsciously. That one thing that God must give us if we are to love and serve Him - maybe it is a good, reliable job, a spouse, children, or living near one's family. But is our love supposed to be conditional? No! God never signed a contract that grants us our hearts desire if we simply love and obey Him. This is one thing I did not like about the Christian movie, "Facing the Giants". They seemed to portray Christianity as obeying God, and then He will help you to win that football game, bless you with kids, a new car, etc. God does bless us when we obey Him, but we need to be careful that we aren't preaching a false prosperity gospel. He may choose to bless us by giving us our hearts desire. Or, He may replace that with something that is even better for us in the long-run. The truth is that we need to give Yahweh our hopes, our dreams, our desires.
So if we give Christ our all, does that mean our hopes and desires are gone for good once we give them to Him to be filled? No, that is the beauty of it. He sometimes fills our cups with something different than we requested. Other times, He fulfills our desires and fills our cups with exactly what we wanted. There is no secret formula, no password or particular way you must live your life in order to receive exactly the blessing you want from Yahweh. The key is that we give the cup of our lives to Him instead of trying to fill it ourselves. We may make our requests known, but in the end we should be rejoicing in what He has given us no matter what the outcome. Let us praise Yahweh for the good gifts He has given us, whether or not they were what we had desired.
Suffering is not always punishment. Certainly, the Lord will rebuke us and we may experience suffering because of that. Yet we shouldn't be quick to assume that all suffering is a punishment. Sometimes it is simply the refiner's fire that we are being passed through so that our dross may burn away. Nor should we seek to write off all suffering as refinement. The first thing to do is to search our lives and our hearts to see if there is some area that we are not obeying the Lord in. If there is sin, then repent of it, turn away from it, and replace it. But as I said, suffering is not always the direct result of a particular sin, but can be part of our sanctification process. Is is the valley that is the place of vision.
We think it is tough to give up everything that we hold near and dear. But what did Christ do for us? He gave up heaven to be a man. He experienced our pains and our weaknesses firsthand. He didn't have to, we certainly didn't deserve it. Yet, Christ loved us so much that He became man for us. We reviled Him, spit on Him, mocked Him...before we love Him, He gave His all for us. Everything. God held nothing back, but sent His own Son - His Son to die for us. He gave up everything - can we do the same for Him? Can we give up everything during our short time on this earth, in order that He may be glorified?
Very good thoughts... I just have to disagree with what you said about Facing the Giants. I don't think that was what they were trying to show at all -- because to me, the message that came across was 'If we win, we praise Him; and if we lose, we praise Him." So when they show the part where they lose the football game (though they later found out the other team was discounted) they praised Him anyway, even though they had lost. Now, of course, they had to win in the end, because it's a movie. Perhaps in real life, it wouldn't have happened that way, but I thought it was a great message -- because God does bless us when we trust everything to Him. It might not always be in such obvious ways as they showed in the movie, and it might often be in ways we would not want. But He will bless us if we put our hope in Him.
ReplyDeleteThere's my little 'Facing the Giants defense' just because I love that movie so much. lol :D
But really, these are great thoughts, and something that is so hard. The hardest part for me is often just figuring out what I might be holding onto. But then sometimes, when I do figure out what it is I'm not surrendering, I get into 'rebellion mode' (perhaps that's a little strong) and I decide that this is what is right for me, and I choose not to give it up... for a while at least. God always breaks me, and I always come out the better for it. :) He is very good to me.
Keep blogging! I love reading your posts.
LOL. That will have to be one thing we disagree on. ;) I don't like sports movies to begin with, and I'm not sure what to think about praying to win against another team. I don't think that is what they were trying to say, but that is how it felt to me. Some of it is experiences I've been through that made it rub me the wrong way. I think it was the way that if they praised God, even in the bad, that they ended up getting what they wanted. It's just that I've been learning lately to praise God in the storms, and I've realized that it doesn't always turn out the way I wanted but that God's plan is the best. I guess they could've just done a better job showing that God is in control even when it doesn't seem okay to our standards.
ReplyDeleteYes! I'm learning to give up everything. It is hard, but God is patient with me. Thanks for the encouragement, your comments are certainly one of the reasons I keep blogging on here. :)