Imagine you have been searching for the perfect home. You finally find one you want to purchase and your offer is accepted! You are giddy with anticipation of moving in and decorating the new place with your preferences and personality.

As you walk into the realtor’s office to sign the papers, the seller’s agent greets you with three stipulations to the sale.

1. The sellers would like to leave some of their belongings in the residence.
2. The sellers would like to retain ownership and maintain the right to enter and use a portion of the property at will. Including one bedroom, two closets and the family room.
3. The sellers would retain physical possession of this small portion of the home, but would like the buyers to provide all maintenance and pay all costs concerning mortgage and taxes and insurance.

Of course this would be the end of the sale! No one in their right mind would agree to such an arrangement!

Let’s ponder another scenario. Imagine you have made quite an impression on a boyfriend that you are dating and he proposes marriage.  You accept the ring, but ask if he wouldn’t mind you maintaining a relationship with another boy who you are really having a lot of fun with. You tell your fiancé that you would love to marry him, but you just don’t feel you can be completely committed at this time. You would love to move into his home, and share his life…but you really are not quite ready to give up your current lifestyle.

Lastly, imagine a Military recruiter accepting the application of a recruit who only wanted to join the military if he could choose when and if he fought. Think about what kind of solder he would make if he could demand the ability to argue orders when he didn’t understand them, or be able to join only if he could come and go when he pleased. Better yet, imagine if the recruit wanted to remain as an active member of a terrorist organization part-time and also be an active solder in the military, because he liked the benefits!

As ridiculous as that sounds, many within our churches treat Salvation with this very same disrespect and partial commitment. They undervalue what it cost our Savior to provide our freedom! They have heard the gospel of, “Free Gift,” but have not bothered to learn of the conditional requirement… We must relinquish everything in order to receive it!

There are some people who just want to be able to go to heaven when they die, but still do as they please while they live here on earth. This does not bear witness to a life transformed by faith, but instead despises the grace given to rise above sin and its lifestyle. It says to the world that they would rather have the freedom to sin…and have Jesus pay the check when they are ready to leave the world.

This is a false gospel that embraces sin without any consequences. It portrays a weak god, in one of the many choices of religion, and in the end it glorifies self and all of its pleasures. No wonder the modern American church is such a confusing place!

Do we somehow feel that God is “lucky” that we acknowledge Him at all? Do we really believe that He is so desperate for our attention that He will settle for any part of ourselves that we are willing to give Him? Have we diminished His Sovereign authority in our minds and instead perceive Him as some low rent tenant that we might evict if He does not treat us the way we want Him too?

If we look for our answer in how the American culture does “church” it would seem so! If we allow this majority to rule our mindset, we may deceive ourselves into thinking that we have the right to be the gatekeepers to our Savior’s rightful possession of our souls. We will act as though we can lock Him out of whatever closet we want. We will believe we are able to invite Him in, or refuse Him access.

Within time, we will have no trouble calling Him Lord with our mouths, but feel we are under no obligation to submit to His Lordship wherever we are uncomfortable.

Could this be true? Many seem to believe so…or at least that is the outcome of much of their behavior. But before we judge others…let us look within our own hearts in order to judge ourselves…

This kind of partial commitment would never be tolerated in any other relationship. Why do we feel we can hand God the tattered and torn places in our lives but believe He will somehow ignore the rest? If He is truly Lord of everything… He will not settle for anything less than EVERYTHING!

This is scary for so many, yet it is such a great and joyous opportunity! God will not require us to surrender anything He will not replace from within His eternal storehouse!

We must release and empty ourselves in order to make room for what He intends for us!

What is the everything we are so afraid to let go of?

Is it…

Everything we struggle with?

Everything we hope for?

Everything we are ashamed of?

Everything we are proud of?

Everything we are hiding?

Everything we are displaying?

Why Everything?

Because keeping anything from the grace and purpose of God, makes it nothing but a stumbling block. It only becomes something valuable when it is offered up to Him!

It is only when we surrender all, that we are ready to be filled with all that God has prepared for us. Our deepest trust and faith is revealed at the moment we are asked to surrender…

Are you holding anything back today?