Lord of All

LORD OF ALL

"In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord." 1 Peter 3:15

At a recent hymnsing, we sang several songs written by Southern Gospel (I confess it was in a weak moment) artist, Audrey Mieir. One of her songs is entitled, ALL HE WANTS IS YOU. One phrase in that songs reads: "Not just a part, He wants ALL of your heart ..."

One of the reasons that so many of us struggle is because we struggle with complete surrender. We will give God 75% or maybe even 95% of our lives. But He doesn't settle for partial surrender -- He wants to be Lord of All!

Listen to the words of Chris Tiegreen: When we became Christians, we confessed Jesus as Lord. When we pray, we call Him Lord. But as we live, is He really Lord in our hearts? The words of our mouths do not tell the whole story. There is a depth in most of our hearts to which Jesus' Lordship does not go. As much as we call Him Lord, most of us have held back a corner of our heart to ourselves. His Lordship extends only so far.

The work of the Holy Spirit is bringing us to maturity in Christ to extent the Lordship of Jesus to EVERY INCH OF OUR LIVES. It is a contentious process. We want the benefits of being a Christian -- such as salvation, peace, joy and the like -- but we want to retain a little autonomy as well. We have internal struggles that our friends and family do not see. There are places in our hearts that we guard, holding the Holy Spirit at a distance. We like to control the tempo of our discipleship.

To the extent that we do this, we base our lives on a false supposition -- that we have the RIGHT to govern ourselves, even after we've supposedly laid our all on the altar. It is an unwise position to try to manage Jesus' Lordship over us. In fact, it isn't His Lordship at all when we control even a portion of our lives.

The question is this: Is Jesus Lord of 100 percent of your heart? Your thoughts, your behaviors, your dreams? What corners of your being have you retained for yourself? Whatever they are, they are footholds for the enemy and shelters for the sinful flesh.

Jesus desires more of you that you have given to him at this point. HE WANTS IT ALL! This seems like painful surrender to us, but from HIS perspective, it is a happy day when one of His people lays it all on the altar. Blessing is the result. He is trustworthy with EVERYTHING we give to Him, and HE will manage our lives better than we ever have. At no point resist Him; set Him apart as Lord. -- from ONE YEAR DEVOTIONAL -- WALK WITH GOD --Tyndale House

Well brothers ... have we surrendered some, most or all? Remember: not just a part -- He wants all of OUR hearts! How about it? -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 16; Deuteronomy 28-29; Mark 14:54-72

Dig This Quote: Christ is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all. -- Hudson Taylor

Determined Digging: Level 1 -- Psalm 46:10; Level 2 -- Psalm 46:1-7