As I’ve been reflecting on my Christian walk with God I’ve realized something: God wants all of me. Now that might seem obvious to many, but you have to understand where I’m coming from.
When I accepted Jesus into my life as my Lord and Saviour, no one told me that my life was going to change so drastically. They focused on all the positive outcomes but forgot to mention all the negative ones.
You might be wondering, what are some negative outcomes to following God and inviting Him into your life to be your Lord and Saviour?
You might not feel it right away, but you will slowly start to run into tensions with your old way of life. You will start to feel these “tugs” to do things that you would never think of before or want to do and even worse, it won’t even make sense. You might find that it’s hard to hang around the same people and talk the same as you used to before Christ.
You start forgiving people who don’t deserve it. You return kindness when given hate. You start becoming generous with your time, talents and treasures even when you barely have any to begin with. It’s truly disastrous to your everyday life.
You let God into your heart on a Sunday and think this is great. But come Monday, you say “I’m going to need my life back. I’m going to need to do things this way.” Unfortunately that’s not how God works nor is it what He intends. He wants all of you. He wants to be a part of everything you say and do. In every area of your life, He’s asking to come in and let Him transform you. He wants to show you a different way of life, one that is absolutely ridiculous to the world or at least to how you used to live it.
I thought this was only true for my obvious rebellious years, but as time goes on I realized that the closer I try to get to God the more He wants of me. He looks at my pain and trouble and says I’ll take that. He looks at my wife and children and says I’ll take that. He looks at my everyday decisions and says I can chime in if you’d like.
After hearing from Jenny from Remember Ministries on Sunday. I can see that the transformation of our lives comes from the love of our Father in Heaven. I deeply resonated with her statement “I’m compelled by love.” My life transformations have always been and will continue to be out of the unfailing love of God. God wants all of us not because He’s on a power trip or wants to control us but rather because God wants to show us how much He loves us. It’s God’s love that causes us to give every area of our life to Him. He gave his Son Jesus to us as a declaration of His love. A gift of grace before we could ever think about earning His love. Just like seeds, it takes time to grow and just like wildfires, it spreads uncontrollably.
Father, I pray that we would be a church that continually holds our lives to you with an open hand. Be Lord over our life and continue to transform us through your son Jesus. May your love continue to compel us to love others like you love us. May we bear fruit in every area of our life because of you. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!