Psalm 103:1 (ESV) Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

One of the most important things that we must learn as the people of God is that the Lord is not just looking to be a part of our lives. He is not looking for you to have a place in your heart for Him, but instead He is looking for you to give Him all your heart. He is not looking for you to love Him, but instead He is looking for you to love Him with all your heart. He is not looking for you to offer Him some praise, but instead is looking for you to praise Him with all your inmost being as the verse above declares. But why is God so insistent on us giving Him our all?

For starters, God has given us His all. The best that He had, He has already given us. There is no greater gift that can be given than the gift of His one and only Son, Jesus, who He sent to save us from all our sins so that we could be reconciled to Him. Jesus, who is none other than God in the flesh, came to pay the penalty for all our sins so that we can be saved and be able to have eternal life to spend with Him forever. Then He gave us His Holy Spirit to help us. He made it so that His Spirit could live in us so that we can live radically different lives than we were living when we were controlled by our sinful nature. On top of that, He gave us His precious promises, through which we can participate in His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). But there is another reason why He requires all and won’t accept anything else, and it’s because He knows our weakness all too well.

Remember that we were created in the image of God. He made us like Him. But as you know from the scriptures, Adam and Eve sinned and thereby corrupted every human being that was born from them. We are all descended from them. Because of the sinful nature that we were born into, we are not like God, even though we are still created in His image. Sin has tainted our hearts. We have learned about guise, deceit, lying, pretending and about doing things half-heartedly. Half-heartedly may not sound so bad, but would marry a person who half-heartedly loved you? We are a mess without the Lord Jesus living in us and through us and being in control of our lives. But to control and direct our lives in the right direction, He needs full control, which requires you being wholehearted towards Him. When you wholeheartedly love and serve Jesus, that’s when you surrender all to Him and look to do His will. When we are at this stage in our lives, it is then that it is well with our souls. It is then that we are safe from ourselves and from the sinful things that we are prone to do when God does not have all of our hearts. He requires that of us because He loves us and it’s the only way that our lives will be lived in a way that will bring blessings to us and will be a blessing to everyone around us. All that He asks of you is all that is within you so that you can enjoy all of His love and all that He has planned for you for all of eternity. After all of this, all is such a small price to pay.

Pastor Joey Vazquez