For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. 2 Chronicles 16:9 NAS
We are not in the kingdom of Judah, and we’re not the king Asa, but their God has become our Father, and the Old Testament was written for our benefit. My ambition is to derive some of that benefit for others and myself. While the covenants are different through which we relate to God, there is a common theme to both. He wants all of our hearts. This morning I want to explore this 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: peace in the Land because the dread of the Lord had fallen on Judah’s enemies. God works like this:
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.
More old covenant if-then’s. (For more on those, check out last Saturday’s post from II 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. II Chronicles 15:12-13
There was a significant cost for non-compliance with God’s commands about all–ness. When men failed to give themselves to God, there was 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 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. from 2 Chronicles 15:1-7 NAS
In our passage, Asa, the king of Judah, displeased God because he relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord his God. This gets us back to all–ness. All–ness is about reliance and trust in God over our other options. However, I believe all–ness and abandonment need revised to fit our context. What do these concepts have to do with us who live under the new covenant?
Many saved-and-going-to-heaven evangelicals immediately start backing up when they hear superlatives like all and everything. Sell all. Forsake everything. They know (or believe) they can’t meet this condition in their fallen nature so they retreat, not wanting to get any where near an altar call or commitment to all-ness. They may think, “Why set myself up for failure? All–ness is simply not possible.” And they’re 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, a process and not perfected work? I would like to share how I stumbled into what I call 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 conviction 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 altar just wanted me to repeat a prayer, but I did not comply. Instead, I essentially 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 entered into a new covenant with God on that day. Since then, my understanding of it has been unfolding. Today, I think of this covenant simply as a relationship—but not a contractual one held together by ifs and thens. 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 would sound from the East and all my tears would be wiped away. Silly boy.
It was not far long into my walk with Christ that I realized 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. My sin made me feel like a mutineer. I was not yet married so I thought, “maybe I need to become a monk. I’m not a Catholic, though. Okay, 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 only a fool would break. Consequently, the broad, secure place of salvation quickly became a narrow path. In fact it would progress into something more akin to a tightrope, 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 ifs and thens in the context of grace instead of the Law:
If we are faithless, then He remains faithful. II Timothy 2:13 NAS
If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9 NAS
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 handed that to God and I’ve 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 was His and He was mine.
When I first came to God, He 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 inadvertently 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 become his disciples. When it dawns upon us that His throne is actually in our hearts, where we work out our salvation, we discover 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. Giving ourselves to God is both a onetime 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 simply learning how to rest in His ongoing mercy. He is faithful to show us how we behave contrary to abandonment. He is faithful to recall and honor our surrender. He loves the childlike trust that introduces us to the kingdom of God. Remember that He initiated your being completely His and that He will sustain you as you 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 NAS
Father, help us to become comfortable with the fact 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.