How many times have you determined to live for Christ like never before? How many times have you promised Him this time you were surrendering for real? If you’re like me, over your lifetime, it’s more times than you can count. As I’ve written before, the ugly truth is we’re as close to God as we want to be. Our commitment is as deep as we desire it to be (James 4:8).
There is almost nothing we can control in our lives, but how we live for Jesus is something we can control. To our shame, most of us choose to spend our time and energy in pursuits other than studying God’s Word or praying (Matthew 26:41). We can rationalize and make excuses all we want, but when we look in the mirror, each one of us knows the truth.
Our culture makes us busy. It’s not enough we are working longer hours to make ends meet, but then there is the constant deluge of information that seems to fill our every spare moment. I often take long walks early in the morning and make my way through a few different neighborhoods. I see between ten and twenty kids (elementary through high school) standing at bus stops. With rare exceptions, they all have one thing in common: their heads are down and staring at their phones. Few ever recognize me walking right in front of them. And let’s be honest with each other. It’s not just the kids. Almost all of us are guilty of this as well.
We allow our minds to indulge in so many things that have no eternal value. How many times have you set your alarm to wake up early to read your Bible, only to stay up too late and hit the snooze bar multiple times? We don’t want the things of God as much as we want the things of this world (Matthew 6:33). We must understand the danger here. The apostle John made it clear that if we love the things of this world, then we do not love God (1 John 2:15). If you don’t love God, you will go to Hell (John 3:36). Consequences don’t get more serious than that.
Jesus died on the cross in our place and for our sins (Romans 5:8). He shed actual blood, so we might live. And what are we doing with that life? Given His sacrifice for us, how deep is our sacrifice for Him? As Keith Green sang many years ago, “Jesus rose from the grave, And you can’t even get out of bed.” Our commitment is pathetic, and our devotion laughable. We sing, “I surrender all,” but do we?
How many times are you going to read articles like this one before you surrender to the Holy Spirit and let Jesus so consume your life that there is no room for anything else (Galatians 2:19-20)? How many times will the Lord compel me to write such things before I absorb the lesson? We all say we want to be closer to Jesus, but if that’s true, why isn’t it happening? Why aren’t we so in love with Jesus that nothing else matters (Philippians 3:8)? We’re as close to Christ as we want to be, and for too many of us, that’s just not close enough.