Pick me! Please?

I want to share with you one of the most important lessons I have ever learned in the course of my Christian life. I was a young man with a wife, three kids, and a mortgage when God called me to leave a pretty successful secular career and go into ministry on a full time basis. He hadn’t revealed at that point what that ministry was going to be, and it was a pretty daunting challenge.

Just a few years before, my brother had gone through a similar process. He left a secular career and enrolled in Bible College on route to becoming a pastor. I helped him move his family from a nice home into a tiny basement apartment where they had to string a line across the corner of the bedroom to hang their clothes. I distinctly remember heading home at the end of that day thinking, “good for him – there’s no way I’m doing that”.  

So here I was, feeling God leading me toward who knows what, and I said something like this. “God, I will do whatever you want as long as I don’t have to go to Bible College and put my family through that.” I will do anything but…  Having put this condition on my obedience I went for months praying desperately but getting no clarification from God on just what I was supposed to do.  I was in turmoil and getting nowhere.

In the midst of this inner struggle we had moved to a new city, a new job, and a new church. One Sunday morning I sat in a Sunday School class. The teacher was Glenn Pitts. I didn’t know him at that time, though eventually he would play an important role in my life. He was teaching from Isaiah chapter 6. It’s the story of Isaiah’s vision, where he was standing in God’s throne room. In verse 8 God said “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah immediately shot up his hand and said “Send me!”

Now I’ve heard lots of sermons taken from this vision, and even from that verse, but Glen made a point I had never noticed or heard mentioned before. Notice that God hadn’t said yet what the job was and Isaiah didn’t ask. Isaiah was so captivated by God’s presence, and so overwhelmed with the desire to please Him, that without even thinking he said “whatever you want, I will do it. “

That hit me like a ton of bricks. It was one of several occasions in my life where I knew God placed me somewhere and guided the speaker’s words because He had a message for me. You see, while I was pleading with God to reveal His plan to me I still had a condition on my willingness. Anything you want, as long as it isn’t Bible College. And here was Isaiah, so excited about the idea of serving God that he was willing to do anything. He was willing to enthusiastically volunteer even though he didn’t even know what the job was.

I went home that day and prayed, “Okay God, even if it’s Bible College”. From that moment God began to clear things up. Before long I knew where He was leading. It didn’t involve Bible College, but it did take me and my family down a path of great sacrifice and great miracles and great joy.

I learned an important lesson that day and in the weeks that followed about the attitude God is looking for. He is looking for willing hearts, servants who are prepared to be obedient and trust Him without condition. 

I said this was a lesson learned, but if I’m honest it’s still difficult sometimes to put it into practice. I still have times when I really want to put conditions or boundaries on what I am willing to give or do for God. I still want to hold back and say, “Lord you can have this part of my life, but I think I’ll just keep this part for myself.”

We can do that if we choose. In fact we can go through our whole Christian lives giving God only a part and stubbornly keeping control of the rest. We might even feel like we have won in the struggle, being Christians but successfully holding on to that part of our lives we don’t want to give up. The reality is we lose. We lose the opportunity to see what God can do when we give him total control. We lose out on the blessings God has for those who are fully obedient. We lose in our Christian growth, because we are stunted when we refuse to let God be Lord of our lives.

Giving God full reign over our lives is a hard decision for some. It’s definitely a step not every Christian is willing to make. God’s call doesn’t usually involve a career change. It may mean serving God in a new way, or simply giving up control over some activity or priority we are determined to hold on to. Whatever it is, following God’s way sometimes seems like too great a cost. The reality is that the abundant life Jesus wants for us (rich and satisfying in the NLT) comes when we are willing to let Him have all of our lives, when we place ourselves in His hands to do as He will.

Does your trust and obedience come with conditions? Are you resisting God’s leading or holding on to parts of your life because you’re not sure God can be trusted with them? Then you’re missing out. It’s as simple as that.  The good life really begins when, like Isaiah, we are so overwhelmed with God’s presence we can’t help but enthusiastically blurt out “Lord, I’m yours. I’m all in.”