Hi, friends! I hope you are all doing well! Popping back in here to share something important with you all, and by God's grace, this is my first step to becoming more consistent with the blog.
My birthday was in May, and I turned 22. Since May 2020, God has given me a specific word or instruction for each year, and this year was not an exception. In this new year, what has been echoing in my spirit is, "Let Me have the best of you."
We live in a world that relentlessly fights for our attention and affection, and we can sometimes get caught up in the busyness and glamor of it all that we lose sight of what truly matters—knowing Jesus and making Him known.
Recently, I remembered a song from my childhood with a particular line that resonates with me: "My lifetime, I will give God my lifetime."
Merriam-Webster defines the word, 'lifetime' as the duration of the existence of a living being. So, to give God our lifetime is to give Him the duration of our existence here on earth. The whole of it.
As I prepared to write this blogpost, this question came to mind: "When I leave this earth, will I know experientially what it means for me to do all God will have me do, or will I only think about it hypothetically?"
When God has our lifetime, He has the very best of us, and not just the reserves. He wants each of us to realize that there is nothing worth more than Him. Nothing in the past, present, or future is more valuable than Him. Once we grasp this truth, we will willingly give Him His rightful position as the Chief Commander of our affections, time, expressions, resources, emotions, and everything else.
In the Bible, servants of God gave Him their lifetime, and lived in a manner that reflected their devotion to Him. I have been meditating on scriptures that speak about this, and I would like to share a few with you:
“For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” - Romans 14:8
“And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.” - 2 Corinthians 12:15
Whenever we read verses like these, we may wonder, “What did these people know that made them live so selflessly for Christ?” The simple answer is that they knew Jesus. And in genuinely seeking and knowing Him, they discovered that He was worth living and dying for. They understood that receiving the life of Christ and being bought at a price meant surrendering their entire lives, desires, and ambitions to Him. And so they lived sacrificially. Living this way is not easy, but it is possible by the help of the Holy Spirit. Our willingness will always be met by His empowerment.
So, my charge to you today is equally simple - know Jesus. In knowing Him, you will discover that He is unmatched by anything this world can offer. In knowing Him, you will renounce the broken cisterns you have depended on for temporary satisfaction and you will come to the realization that Jesus is the living water that truly satisfies.
I often ask the same question Peter asked Jesus in John 6:68, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life." And with each passing day, my conviction remains that there is absolutely nothing I could be doing with my life that would be more fulfilling than a life lived all to Jesus—for His delight and His glory.
Let this become your conviction, too.
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite songs by Hillsong Worship.
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