All Or Nothing…
Deuteronomy 6:4-10
4Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord [the only Lord]. 5And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might. 6And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be [first] in your [own] minds and hearts; [then] 7You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the [minds and] hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets (forehead bands) between your eyes. 9And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 10And when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities which you did not build,
When I am involved in family matters, ministry, school, work and friendships I have an all or nothing attitude. I am the same way in relationship; I will give all or nothing at all. That is basically my motto for life “take me as I am all of me or have nothing at all.” As I have grown older and matured I have learned that partiality and mediocrity is not for me. I have found that giving less than my all to things I am immersed in or involved in is a disservice to those I serve and to myself as a person gifted in that area, or blessed to be a part of that scenario. I also have learned that allowing people to only be accepting of bits and pieces of me tears at the fiber of who God created me to be and attempts to demote the value of who I am. My mom and dad both would say “why would you do things in a halfhearted manner, it speaks to the type of person you are.” So I have learned to give all of me, whole heartedly to whatever I am lead to be a part of.
My question became not just in my work ethic but in my service to God, why would I present Him only pieces of whom I am when even a bit of who He is far beyond all of who I am? We have a tendency to serve God only with parts of us, we may submit our heart, but our mind may not be on board. Or we may have our heart and mind together, but we still have not been able to consecrate our body. Maybe it is not our body or heart but our mind is out of control and our thinking is not in line or in order with the will of God. God wants the entirety of who we are on board in the areas of service and obedience. He wants all of us. We are supposed to become the living the sacrifice that is Holy and acceptable unto God. We are supposed to be a living testimony. If we have chosen to give ourselves away to God, and place ourselves on the alter; if we chose to take up our cross and really follow Christ, we will find that we will have to endure things that we can only endure and withstand if we are all in. This walk is not for the faint in heart and the weak in stomach…It is for those strong enough to give it all, just because God asked for it all.
Take a moment today and ask yourself am I all in or not? Really allow God to show you where you are at, because only then can we make the necessary adjustments to get ourselves in line with the will of God. All of us is the only way to really become all that God wants. Giving all of us, gets the attention and the heart of God. Giving all of us will get us all of Him. Jesus will stand up and take notice of us, just as He did with Stephen. Rise up and become the one, the man or woman of God that makes the decision not to short change God but honors Him with their whole self, their whole life…Why not start giving it all today!
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