What it means to live for God

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Jesus deserves our wholehearted devotion because He is Lord.  

When we follow and obey Jesus wholeheartedly, we may stand out from the rest, seem odd, or even fanatical to some.  But to please man before we please God leads to disaster. 

If we regard our reputation more than the Lord, we are not wholehearted toward Him. 

God looks at our hearts.  We may lose some friends along the way, maybe even some family.  But God is worthy of our absolute devotion, wholeheartedly, no matter what the outer circumstances.

There is always a cost to following Jesus wholeheartedly, whether it be giving up something or someone that we want.  Or it could mean the death of our idea of what our life "should" look like.  But I don't think our outer, short-term reality matters as much to Jesus as our hearts do.

We may think we are giving up too much, at a loss, if we give Jesus our absolute all.  But what we gain is so much more valuable, and it is eternal.

We gain the very attributes of Christ.  His love, joy, peace, and power and purpose are now what live in our whole hearts, what drives us and motivates us to keep living for Him.

We "live for Jesus" when we trust Him totally.

We live for Jesus when we put His plan before our own.

We live for Jesus when we regard His opinion of us over and above others' opinions of us.  

We live for Jesus by keeping an eternal perspective and seeing this life as it really is - but a vapor. 

This is not morbid or depressing.  If we think it is, then it reveals the condition of our hearts - still tied to this world and what it offers.  

We live for Jesus when we keep a close, intimate connection with Him, not necessarily when we do the "Christian checklist" of activities, for those can be done without a wholehearted devotion to Him.  

"We slander God by our very eagerness to work for Him without knowing Him." ~ Oswald Chambers

Not know about Him, but know Him.  This includes experiencing others' rejection as He did.  Persecution as He did.  Being misunderstood and mocked as He was.

To me, all of this is what it means to truly live for God.

Dear Lord.  The temptation comes in the form of living for ourselves instead of living for You.  You told us flat out that there are not many on the path of following You - that it is narrow and that most take the broad road.  Help us trust You and love You wholeheartedly and truly live for you and stay with You on the narrow road, Lord.  For we have Your companionship, protection, blessing, and Presence with us on this road.  Thank You, Lord, that You are worthy of our wholehearted devotion.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

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