Half Off

Lately I have been thinking about how many decisions I used to make without consulting God. It’s all too easy for us to be racing along in life and not stopping to pray about things that come up. Even more than this I have been challenged by the realization that I all too often approached life and decisions as some sort of half off sale. What I mean by that is I totally ignored half of who God says He is to us.

I knew Him as Savior and would happily tell people about the depths to which He loved me and because of that I felt I was living my life for Him. In this season of battling cancer when life has dramatically slowed down and I am no longer racing through life I am beginning to see that is only half of the story. I am also learning what it means that He is Lord. I have always mentally assented to that but I when I don’t consult Him on decisions in life or when I don’t allow Him to guide and direct me to holiness than I am missing the other half and it affects the way I see Him and relate to Him. When we don’t allow Him to be both Lord and Savior we open our lives to a lot of warfare because we are wandering outside of His presence.

So much of what we see in our world today is happening because many of us have chosen this path. We want salvation, acceptance and love but we don’t want to actually answer to His holiness. We don’t want to lay our hearts, thoughts and feelings before Him and truly let Him speak to us about those things because we are afraid of what He might say. We are afraid that we will have to change. This fear stems from an inner knowledge that we harbor certain things in our life that we don’t want to give up, especially control. If we move along not being accountable to His holy character then we think we can hold on to these things. The result is that we only live half a relationship with God and in the end He wants all of us.

The longer I walk this faith journey the more I realize I need Him to change me, to help me be holy. I need this not so I am perfect but because I long to be in His presence and there can be nothing unholy there.  I can’t justify allowing things in my life that go against His Word and think it will be ok because He loves me. I can’t make faith fit what I think is acceptable. Faith is based on His holiness and His Word. It’s not based on my interpretation of it, I can’t pick and choose what to believe and what to leave out. There is no half off approach to being in relationship with God. I know this because He gave everything for me. He not only made covenant with man, He paid the full price to ensure we could walk in relationship with Him. He took all our sin and separation, all our despair and hopelessness; He took our death and gave us life abundant.He didn’t go half off He went all in and so should we.