Read Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 22: 34- 40 , Luke 10:25-28
The Scripture tells us to love the Lord God with all of your heart, soul, and mind. Our Heavenly Father needs to be Lord over every area of our lives, not just isolated areas. It is very good to examine our lives from time to time. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (ESV) In life, we know many of us are so thankful for the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when we fail and mess up. On a daily basis, we could question whether or not we are really giving God everything. Our minds may even tell us “you can always do more”, or maybe the enemy may whisper that in our ears to make us feel guilty perhaps? Just a thought. Nonetheless, we need to act within our conscience and our convictions on this matter of “With Everything”. With Everything- two words that carry extreme weight when paired together speaking in regard to our walk with Jesus! We all fall short, and we get it wrong at times. But there is something about everything, giving God all of you, and going after it for the Lord. When doing so, let’s consider a few areas (this is not an exhaustive list) of ways we can examine ourselves today:
Reading Of The Word/Prayer- Are we taking time out to read God’s Word and pray daily/consistently? Daily reading of God’s Word and prayer is vital to the Christian walk. It is food and water to the soul. You absolutely need it. We encourage you not to neglect this and starve your spiritual man. Also, are we taking the time out to get into the presence of the Lord? Maybe this could be sitting alone in the quiet, praising Him in song, sitting quietly while worship music is playing, reading the Word while having worship music on in the background, etc. However you get into the presence of the Lord, it’s vital to your relationship with Him. The Bible says to “draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8A).
Our Speech- Are we building one another up or tearing one another down? To act in love doesn’t mean compromising our fire for the Lord. However, it doesn’t mean we act with ulterior motives that are not right before God and don’t line up with the Bible.
Television/Media- What does our TV schedule or social media/phone habits look like? These greatly influence our lives whether we believe it or not. The abundance of things you hear and look at eventually influence you. Obviously we cannot avoid everything in this life. Use discernment and make decisions based on personal conviction (see below). However, you may just be feeding the wrong thing into your mind. For example, are you feeding yourself with television shows with sexual scenes, cheating on one another, cursing (sometimes non-stop), and much more sinful activity? Are we scrolling on social media profiles that promote sex, alcohol, drugs, materialism, etc? Maybe we are following so many accounts that it makes us feel less because of all they have compared to what we have. Are we googling topics that aren’t edifying our soul? Are we leading ourselves into temptation and issues with such things? Something worth thinking about and bringing to the Lord.
Acting Out On Our Convictions- This is something that is very important. Do you ever recognize that Voice that tells you something isn’t right? You don’t feel right in your spirit about something. It feels wrong. As a Christian, this is usually the Holy Spirit convicting you. We must act on those convictions and be obedient to them. For example, one person may be convicted over something that is a disputable matter in this life. Disputable matters would be things that are gray areas and the Scripture does not specifically give us clear cut guidelines about them. We truly believe that discernment is key and following the leading of the Holy Spirit is essential. If you feel convicted about something, are you acting on that and being obedient to the Lord? While one person may feel comfortable on a certain topic, the other may not. If you are convicted, are you acting out on that? Being obedient means with everything. Be obedient to those convictions as it will bode well for your life. At the end of the day God is our Master and He will judge us accordingly (Ref. Romans 14:4). Therefore, don’t worry about what others say, be obedient to your convictions. Remember, partial obedience is in fact disobedience. With everything…
Helping Others- The second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself (Ref. Matthew 22: 39). Obviously one person cannot supply for the entire world. However, there are needs everywhere and many people to help. Where is God leading YOU to help? Love one another, bear each other’s burdens, pray for one another, give to the poor, help those who are in need. Seek the Lord, stay close to Him and be obedient when He shows you to do something. For example, He May lay on your heart to give to a ministry above your tithes- as an offering. Maybe this is for missions work for example. Maybe you give some money to sponsor a child in need, or give your time at a local soup kitchen, etc. We are His hands and feet. Also, it’s important to note that this doesn’t mean we just neglect needs unless God specifically shows us in some major way (however, there is nothing wrong with praying on something to be sure). Nevertheless, some things in this life are just obvious. As we seek the Lord in our lives He will show us more and more and we will be more sensitive to needs around us! Sometimes it’s simply just a smile or an encouraging Word to someone else.
In conclusion, this list is by no means exhaustive. Let’s be honest, we all fail at times at these items listed above. We need Jesus. We need His grace to help us along the way. As the time passes God will continually refine you as long as you are seeking Him and spending time with Him. God is looking for hearts that are fully committed to Him so that He can support and strengthen you (Ref. 2 Chronicles 16:9). Additionally, we encourage you to test everything, even the words in this devotional as well as all of them that our ministry does. Test our “use” of Scripture as it relates to a topic (as we know Scripture in and of itself is fully pure) and test our words and devotionals as a whole. We believe there is nothing wrong with that and that it is a good thing to do. With this being said, we say this- give God everything- everyday, every hour. You will see how God moves in your life and how your relationship with the Lord reaches new heights. With everything Lord, WITH EVERYTHING.
May His Name Be Praised