Are you willing to give everything to God? What are the things in your life that you are holding back from Him? What is it that has priority over God in your heart?
As Christians we are called to live for Christ. We are not called to live half of the day for ourselves and half of the day for Christ. We are not called to split our affections 80–20 or even 99–1.
We should be sold out for Christ. Everything that we have and everything that we are should be offered to Christ.
As Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself to me.”
Once we are saved, we don’t live for ourselves. We live for Christ. Everything that we say and do should be for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom.
We have to be willing to sacrifice it everything we have — material things, friends, family and our lives — for God because He is greater and everything that we have comes from Him.
I didn’t earn the car that I drive. God gave me the job that gave me the money to buy that car. That car doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to God. And He could take it away any time He wanted.
We must remember that “every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights …” (James 1:17). Everything that we have is God’s and we must be ready and willing to give it all back the moment He asks.
But it’s not easy. We all love our stuff. And we all think we need our stuff.
I need my car to get to work every day. I rely on my car to get me to work every day. I trust my car to get me to work every day.
When we think we need something, the focus of our faith and trust gets put onto something or someone other than God. We must trust God in everything. We must rely on Him for everything.
Nothing in our lives should trump God. Our sleep shouldn’t be more important than spending time in His word. Our favorite TV show or movie shouldn’t be important than fellowship and encouragement with other believers. Everything in our lives should point to Christ.
God doesn’t just ask us to give up our material possessions for Him. He doesn’t just ask us to give our money to His Church and to missions around the world. He asks us to be willing to give up our lives for His sake.
In Matthew 16, Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save is life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake with find it” (vv. 24–25).
Just as Jesus took up His cross, we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses, being willing to die for the cause of Christ.
If it’s not easy to surrender all of our material things to God, it can’t be easy to surrender our lives to Him. But it is what we are called to do, and we can do it because we know what awaits us in heaven is better than anything we could experience on earth.
In Philippians 1, Paul writes, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (v. 21).
We should live our lives for the glory of God because He is one who gave us life. While God is still gifting us time on earth, we should use it for Him and His kingdom. And when God decides to call us home, we rejoice because we will forever live with Him.
What is it today that you can give to Christ? Maybe it’s the TV show that pulls your thoughts and desires away from godly things. Maybe it’s the music you listen to that isn’t glorifying to God. Maybe you can give 30 minutes in the morning, at night or on your lunch break to spend time praying and reading the word of God.
You know what it is that pulls you away from God and toward the things of this earth. Take intentional steps to eliminate those things and put all of your faith and hope in Jesus Christ. Know who God is, be thankful for everything that He’s given you and be ready to surrender it all back to Him for the sake of His kingdom.
As the hymn “All to Jesus I Surrender” says:
All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give.
I will ever love and trust Him,
in His presence daily live.
I surrender all,
I surrender all.
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender,
humbly at His feet I bow,
worldly treasures all forsaken;
take me, Jesus, take me now. …
