2 Chronicles 16:7-9

For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. 

We are not of the kingdom of Judah nor are we Asa their king but their God has become our Father. The things in the old testament were written for our benefit. My ambition is to derive some of that benefit for myself and others. While the covenants are different through which we relate to God, there is a common theme to both. He wants all our hearts. This morning I want to explore all-ness. Let’s get some backstory first….

In Asa’s early reign he did not act foolishly. Listen to his heart, “O Lord, You are our God; let not man prevail against You.” The consequence; there was peace in the Land because the dread of the Lord had fallen on their enemies. As a reminder of God’s ways …..

the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, then He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, then He will forsake you.

There are those old covenant if’s and then’s again. (For more on those check out last Saturday’s post from 2 Chronicles 7:11-22) Listen to this….

They entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul; and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. 2 Chronicles 15:12-13

There was a significant cost for non-compliance with God’s all-ness commands. Where men failed to give themselves to God there was always trouble and death,  for God troubled them with every kind of distress. Yet when they sought him in the midst of trials the outcome was radically different….

the Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, then He will let you find Him; but (again) if you forsake Him, then He will forsake you. But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.”

In our passage, Asa the king of Judah has displeased God because he had relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord his God. This gets us back to all-ness. All-ness is all about reliance and trust in God over our other options. However, I believe the concept of all-ness and abandonment need revised to fit our context. What are these concepts to look like to us who live under the new covenant?

Many saved-and-going-to-heaven evangelical christians immediately start backing up when they hear superlatives like all and everything. “Sell all.” “Forsake everything.” They know (or believe) that this condition cannot be met in their fallen nature so they retreat, not wanting to get any where near an alter call or commitment to all-ness. They may think, “Why set myself up for failure? All-ness is simply not possible.” And they are correct if it refers to a completed condition of the heart. But, what if all-ness is more about a child-like orientation to Father and a process and not a perfected work?  I would like to share how I stumbled into what I am calling “all-ness”.

When I came to Christ (or probably more accurately, when he drew me to himself), I did not hear the classic gospel message. In fact, I did not feel any specific convictions of sin. I didn’t invite Jesus into my heart to just save me from my sins or to escape hell. My deepest conviction at that time was that I was utterly alone, lost, and that darkness had a vice-grip on me. The folks standing around me at the alter just wanted me repeat a prayer but I essentially just told Jesus from my heart that He could have my life and do anything He wanted with it. I was wrecking it. To my best understanding I had entered into a new covenant with God on that day and my understanding of it has been unfolding through the years. Today I think of this covenant simply as a relationship but not a contractual one held together by if’s and then’s. It was initiated by and is sustained by Christ alone.

In that moment had I really succeeded in giving God my whole heart? How is that even possible? Can a fallen nature bent on having its own way really abandon itself to another? I believe we can because I did. I was absolutely thunderstruck at the changes Christ made in my life in a very brief span of time. It truly was amazing! Projecting forward with this supernatural trend in mind, I envisioned Christ and I walking hand in hand on a gradually upward grade until that day the trumpet souns from the East and all my tears would be wiped away.  Silly boy.

It was not too long into my walk with Christ that I realized that this world still had a downward pull on me.  The battle was on. What had happened to my surrender?! My temptations made me feel like a traitor to Christ. My sin made me feel like a mutineer. I was not yet married so I thought maybe I need to become a monk. But wait, I am not a Catholic. OK, I’ll just become monk-ish. I will wage a battle of discipline over my flesh and I will prevail. I must! I had surrendered to Him. I had made vows to God that only a fool who did not fear Him would break. Consequently, the broad and secure place of salvation quickly became a narrow path. In fact it would progress into something more akin to a tight-rope -a religious one to be precise.

In my struggle with sin had I broken trust with God? Yes, a thousand times and then some. But here is where we discover the nature of all-ness and see God’s if’s and then’s in the context of grace instead of the Law…..

 ……….If we are faithless, then He remains faithful. 2 Timothy 2:13……If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The battles I fight with sin do not negate my original and complete abandonment to God. My sin never has separated me from Him. It was always a matter of who was holding the title to my life. I had handed that to God and I have never asked for it back. Why would I want it? Where else was I going to go? When I encountered temptations, when I sinned, when I found deep parts of me dull and unresponsive, I returned to the simple idea that I am His and He is mine.

When I first came to God He had accepted my all as my honest consideration into our covenant.  That my all consisted of less than nothing is what facilitated my stumbling into all-ness. I had inadvertantly placed my entire reliance upon Jesus Christ. When we stumble (or find our way) into all-ness we inevitably meet Christ as Lord. And… when we add to Lordship, His sovereignty, His omniscience and His power, we enter into discipleship. When it dawns upon us that His throne is actually in our hearts and that it is our hearts where we are working out our salvation, we have discovered the kingdom of God. His initial and ongoing work is to secure our reliance and trust for our own benefit. The Father is always inviting us into that place of rest where we truly abide in Christ and bear much fruit for Him.

We don’t have to be perfect to give ourselves totally to God. How many people are failing to know Christ as Lord because they have been intimidated by Christ’s command to take up their cross and follow Him or to love Him with all their beings. Giving ourselves to God is both a one time and all-time ongoing affair. Abiding is abandoning myself to His faithful keeping.  It sounds like a grueling uphill trek when in reality it is just learning how to rest in His tender ongoing mercies. He is faithful to show us where we are behaving contrary to abandonment and He is also faithful to recall and honor our tender honest surrenders. He loves this childlike trust that introduces us to the kingdom of God. Just remember being completely His is a work that He has initiated and that He will sustain as we rest in Him. That is why Paul can say….

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Father, help us to become aware and comfortable that we are never hidden from your sight and that it is with you with whom we have to do. Help us to be strong and to not lose courage. For those of us who have never abandoned ourselves to you, would you give us eyes to see that our surrendered status is actually the safest place in the universe to be. Help us each to discover that You yourself are our reward. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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