Jesus, All for Jesus-- 12/8/2010

                As we were singing a song tonight at church, I realized that I needed to take a break tonight from the Five Love Languages blogs.  I feel like God has really laid this on my heart and I do feel that it is a very important message.  As you read this, I pray that you will be open and honest with yourself.  Be transparent and let yourself see if you are the person that I may mention in this little blurb.

                The song that started this whole thing is called “Jesus, All for Jesus”. Until I began attending my current church, I had not heard this song.  But I have been so blessed to have come to know it.  Here are the lyrics.

                Jesus, all for Jesus
                All I am and have,
                and ever hope to be.

                All of my ambitions,
                hopes and plans.
                I surrender these
                into your hands.

                For it’s only in Your
                will that I am free.
                For it’s only in Your
                will that I am free.

Although I say that I am glad I have come to learn this song, I realized tonight that I had not totally been able to wrap my mind about what the song was saying.  Then tonight, for some reason, it all made sense.  Suddenly I understood what meant about being free and how I could become free.

The song can be looked at like this.  Section one (or verse one), is step one.  It is a yearning.  We have to have a yearning, a desire to want to follow God, to seek Him.  We have to have that desire to want to be everything to Jesus.  To want to give everything to Jesus.  Section two (or verse two), likewise, is step two.  Step two is the actual giving of everything to God.  Saying, “God, I want you to take everything.  I take everything I have ever wanted and I want You to have it.  Do what You will with my life.”  This itself is a very powerful section of the song.  Letting go of everything you have wanted, have planned, and giving it all to God.  Section three (or the chorus), is the results of step 1+step 2.  The result is essentially freedom.

I was recently confronted by a friend saying that they had given God everything once before, but God just abandoned then.  What part of “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deu. 31:6) do you not understand?  Here’s the kicker though.  Like in verse two where the song talks about giving all of our “ambitions, hopes and plans”, that doesn’t say, “some of my ambitions, hopes and plans”.  If we only give God the parts of our lives that are easy to give, that only results in chaos, uncertainty, and essentially, bondage.  In Revelations 3:16 God says, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.”  God is serious about this.  You can’t have one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world.  It doesn’t work that way.  We live in the world, but that does not mean we have to be part of it.  Unfortunately some are not willing to give God everything.  Then I have to wonder, why do they expect God to give them everything?

Some people feel that if they give God everything then they become “bible thumpers” or “holy rollers”.  They don’t want to have all these rules and regulations and mainly they are just afraid of being restricted.  But this is where the chorus comes in when it says, “for it’s only by Your will that I am free”.  I  am personally seeing this to be so true in my life.  When I was living outside of God’s will, I felt trapped.  I felt stuck in a life, in a stereotype that I couldn’t get out of.  Yes, it may be fun for a while, but then it starts to take over us.  (And many times this is where the depression comes in.)  God has a plan for our lives as stated in Jeremiah 29:11.  Many people think this means that God has every detail of our lives planned out, but I believe this to be talking about the plan that God has had for each one of us since day one of the creation of man.  The plan for man to walk to God and for God to give each one of us a future.  Does this mean that God is going to give us long life or a nice place or a great job?  I don’t know.  That is God’s department, not mine.  But I do know that God has the plan for us to spend eternity with Him if we will only let Him lead us.  (And again, I mean actually lead us.  Not just letting Him lead part of our lives)

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m tired of not being on fire for God.  And I think the only way that we can become on fire for God is to have yearning.  That yearning is the fire place, the giving is the wood, and the freedom is that fire!  If we keep giving all of ourselves and not try to take anything back away from God, this fire will NEVER go out.  It will always keep our souls warm, all the while attracting new believers to Christ.

When we can give God everything and let Him lead us, there is a power that we have.  Many of you know the classic hymn Power in the Blood.  What does the chorus of that song say?  “There is power, power, wonder-working power.  In the blood of the lamb.  There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the lamb.”  This is the power that we have when we give God everything!  You want this power?  Give God everything.  Don’t just give God your weekends or maybe the occasional Wednesday.  Give Him your mornings, your thoughts, your evenings, your joys, your burdens.  Give Him absolutely everything and feel that freedom that it gives you.  Let yourself be free.  Have that power through Jesus Christ.  Be an overcomer.  Be able to praise God and say, “for it’s only in Your will that I am free”.