He Asks for Everything

I think we've been comfortable for far too long.

We’ve been comfortable with our mediocre, have-God-on-my-terms Christianity for far too long. This lukewarm, one-foot-in-the-world version of Christianity that we’ve concocted is not the version of the Bible.

You see, Jesus asks for everything.

“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosever will save his life shall lose it: but whosever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9: 23-24

I grew up thinking that since I said the sinner’s prayer when I was 10 years old, I was fine. I was going to heaven in the end, and God was happy with me. I mean, I had accepted Him and everything, right? So, what more did He want with my life? Sure, I knew that I needed to tack on a few more morals to look “better,” but I could still look like the rest of the world for the most part.

I could listen to the same music. I could wear the same clothes. I could participate in the same entertainment. I could make the same choices in regards to relationships and follow the world’s pattern for dating. Right?

No.

He asks for it all. Absolutely everything must be laid upon the altar. Nothing held back.

“And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she broke the box, and poured it on His head.” Mark 14: 3

She broke it all out upon Jesus. A word in “spikenard” isn’t translated but is included in the Greek. It’s pistikos and means object of faith or trust. All that she had worked for and had confidence in was laid at the feet of Jesus.

"If the ultimate, the hardest, cannot be asked of me; if my fellows hesitate to ask it and turn to someone else, then I know nothing of Calvary love."

Amy Carmichael

“She stood, as it were, with her face to God and her back to the people, waiting to receive His Word for the ‘chosen people.’ She had a vision of the holy living. She would not deviate from that no matter how well established, rational, and practical the ways of older missions seemed to be.”

Elisabeth Elliot, in speaking of Amy Carmichael, who left her comfortable existence in England to rescue little girls from temple prostitution in India

So, the question we must ask ourselves is: Does Jesus have everything? Does He have all my hopes, my dreams, my future, my decisions…my life?

Because true life and fulfillment cannot come until He does. It’s just the Gospel. 

Gaining His heart

Lately, I have felt something I have never felt with such intensity before. Sure, the feeling has been present in my soul in the past, and God has just increased it over the years as I continue to gain His heart for those around me. But feeling it to this level? Well, it’s all new…

You see, there are a group of children that I have the privilege of spending every Monday evening with and usually other times throughout the week, as well. All it takes is one of them to look up at me with their sweet, innocent little face, and I break. I want to wrap each and every single one of them in my arms and never let go. I want to hold each one until all their pain is gone. All I want is to pour HIS love into them. Dear God, break me more for these precious ones…

As I have been studying through the book of I Thessalonians, I have come across certain phrases that I had never really given much thought to, skipped over, and maybe thought were kind of strange before. Phrases such as,

“So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us.” 2: 8

“We exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his children.” 2:11

“But we, brethren, being taken (to bereave of a parent; to be rendered an orphan) from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire…For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” 2: 17, 19-20

“For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for you sakes before our God: night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and mighty perfect that which is lacking in your faith? 3: 8-10

However, now I understand what Paul meant.

The Thessalonians weren’t Paul’s actual children, obviously. Yet, he felt such deep affection and love for them, it seemed like they were. This is what God has been doing in my heart for these precious children I get to work with. Everything with me longs to see them come to know the Gospel. And, like 2:8 says, I am so willing to just spend and spill my life for them, not only giving them the Gospel.

And though I long to just pour my life into them constantly and ache after just a day or two of not seeing them, He has called me to “night and day pray exceedingly” that they might come to know Him and be raised up into mighty men and women of Truth. Will I, and you also, choose to stand between the hurt, vulnerable, and weak around the world and the enemy, who only wants to destroy them?

“And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor…” Isaiah 59: 16

“I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him…I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not, I searched out. And I broke the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil of his teeth.” Job 29

“He pleads effectively because he gives his life for those he pleads for; he is their genuine representative. He has submerged his self-interest in their needs and sufferings, and as far as possible has literally taken their place.” Norman Grubb, Rees Howells: Intercessor

“While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight; I'll fight to the very end!” William Booth