Ponderings of a Servant

How many times have you heard the prayer of salvation? If you have been hanging around Christianity for any time, I’m sure that it has come up at least once or twice. Some people feel like you shouldn’t even need to pray a prayer but that isn’t what I want to touch on tonight.

In almost all versions of the prayer of salvation, there is a specific line that talks about giving God your life. I briefly spoke about it in my last post about how we are called to give God everything that we have. That is what I want to talk about tonight.

Have you ever stopped to think about those words “Jesus, I give you my life”? While we may casually say them, I don’t think Christians understand what they mean , because if they do we are doing a horrible job of living it out. Christians have been classified as some of the most judging and hypocritical people in the world – I don’t think that sounds like people who have given their full life to Christ.

I thin that the problem lies with our human need for control. We all want to have a part of our lives, we want to give God most of our lives, but in some areas continue to hold onto them. Just to be clear, I have the same problem – but it doesn’t mean that it is right. God ask for us to give him our lives, every part of them. But why would a God want our lives? It makes him sound like some sort of control freak who just wants things his way. I think this is far from true.

God knows a lot about you. He created you – exactly how you are. He also knows what human nature and free will is all about. He knows that humans are fallen creatures. But God is holy and pure, He is perfect in all his ways. And he is asking for your life.

I had a conversation with a friend that has sadly become more and more common to have with others. I was talking to them about how, at that time in my life, I felt like I needed to give God more of me. Their response was like all the others “But I’m not ready to give this to God yet.” It almost seems like we view giving our life to God as a chore. Or maybe we are scared of what he will do with us. Maybe we are afraid that he will hurt us or something – or maybe we are just afraid of change. The fear consumes us and we stay giving half of our life to God, living a mediocre faith in a mediocre world. The saddest thing is that we are ok with this.

God isn’t asking us for our life as an exchange. He is desiring our life. He isn’t asking because he just casually wants to live within us, but that he yearns to be with us. The God of the universe – the creator – wants us to give him our life so that He can live with us! He wants to give us the ability to become more than we are now. Instead of being a shell, he is asking that we join him in this life. He loves us so much that he yearns to be with us – as dirty and unclean as we are. And another thing, God always does what is best for us. Maybe you have, but I have never looked back at something that God has done and gone “Wow, that was the worst thing ever.” I know plenty that I have looked back and thought about how much I screwed up, but God never does. If I don’t think that God is doing something good in me, I realize that I’m not to the place where I can see it yet.

God wants you. He desires you. He loves you. When you love someone here on earth and you get married to them, you become one with them – emotionally, spiritually and physically. You love them and they love you – most of the time. Think about this, when you sign onto the journey of Christ, God wants to become one with you emotionally and spiritually. He wants to infuse his heart into yours, but we sit here and hold things back from him. We can’t feel his heart because we haven’t given him ours. He wants to do things through you, all you have to do is trust him. You have to learn what faith is like when you have to give the last thing you have control over to him. We limit him and his power by what we give him.

I don’t know about you, but I seek for God to use me in great ways. Yes, he will change me. Yes, I will have to forsake human desires. But I think that trusting my life to the one who created me would be the most amazing thing ever – if for no other reason than to experience his love.

Lets go and live that. My challenge to you is that you begin to pray for God to take your whole life and let him do it. Give him the ability to use you and change you – because God won’t relent until  he has it all.

Pointing up,

Kyle

Today was a day that started out like most of the other days. I woke up, got ready for the day, watched some news while I ate my waffles with peanut butter (a great combination if you haven’t tried it before) then headed out to work a little early to help out with a few issues from the weekend. The day continued to press forward from there, work, lunch and more work. I had wanted a change of pace from my normal leave work and go home so that I could play XBOX and it was great.

I got the chance before I headed out to a bible study (which feels a lot like FLOOD) to stop off at Wendy’s, grab a root beer float and read some of David Platt. One of his main questions that he asks in the book I was reading was “Is this really all that there is to life?” Do we really want to live out our faith inside the confides of our house, our church with the comfy seats, our normal, everyday lives? I have begun to ask the question more often of myself – and I think there is so much more that we are missing out on.

Life is meant to be lived. We as a generation of young people spend way to much time staying within our routine, our comfort zone. For some reason we have this fear of stepping out and doing something. Even if it is just changing one night from going home and using Facebook or playing video games. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that these things are bad – but just there has to be something more. We spend to much time worrying about what is coming, rather than the now. God is not I will be, he calls himself the great “I am.” Present tense. We are supposed to live now. Not any other time. This moment is what matters.

In asking this question, it has lead me to continue down the path. I want more. Like a hungry lion about that searches high and low for prey, I want that. I hope that I’m not the only one on this journey, because I want to share this with you – but even if I am, I know in the end it is totally worth it. But as I learn that there is more to life, more to God, more to existence than even where I am now – I’m learning that it requires me to continually give things over to God. And as this journey continues, it gets easier and easier to trust God with everything. Yes, I trust God – but I keep finding that as he takes over more things that I let go of, they turn out a ton better than I ever though they could. But then again, God has never done anything that would hurt me or harm me – he has always done what is best.

If I could take a quote that really encompasses what I want from my faith walk – David Platt sets it up nicely in his book The Radical Question: What is Jesus worth to you? saying:

To sacrifice everything in radical devotion to Jesus means to surrender our lives, our rights, our ambitions, our plans, our dreams, our families, our relationships, our possessions, our safety, our security, our past, our present, and our future to the absolute lordship of Jesus

I want that. I don’t have all of those things given over, but I want to. I desire to. I’m finding that as I give things over to God, it doesn’t mean that I don’t get to have any say in the matter anymore. I just have a new way to look at them. God allows me to be part of the decision making process, but he helps me see the decisions clearly.

This isn’t a radical new concept probably to any of us. But there is a disconnect between saying that we want this and actually doing this. Sometimes we loose focus, sometimes we go off on our own, but God wants us to have more of him. There is so much more to God that you have yet to even discover, I’ve spent most of my life as a Christian and there are still things that amaze me each day.

We were never called to be normal. We were called to step out. We were called to follow in full devotion to God. So if you are comfortable with your faith right now, get uncomfortable. If you like where you are with God, desire more. If you have spent the last months talking about how much you want to change – do it. Our time is now men and women. Stop living like this is generation you – this life isn’t about you. This is our generation – and we have some leading to do. But before we can lead, we must follow the one who is the ultimate leader, Jesus Christ.

Moving at the speed of life and loving every second of it,

Kyle