I want to give you every bad thing in my life.

How many times have you heard this?

People preach the gospel, and they say things like “bring all of your bad, bring all your mistakes, your sadness, your guilt. Bring all the ugly and give it to God.”

They mean that God will take these things from you, and begin to heal you, and He will. I encourage you to give all these things to Him, for He calls all who are tired, all who are weary, to come to Him and He will give you rest for your soul (Matthew 11:28-30).

But I have wondered lately..

Why is it that no one wants to give Him the good? Why do we not mention that we are to give Him everything. We are to lay the ugly, and the pretty at His feet. We are called to lay all that we have; our family, our friends, our very lives and all they contain before Him. This is the God that gave you the very breath in your nostrils. This is the God who laid His life down on your behalf, so that you would not be given the punishment you were due. This is the Lord that poured Himself out for you, humbled Himself, in order to take your death sentence upon Himself because He cared for you while you were at odds with Him.

We cannot ask Him to take everything that is wrong, and let us keep everything good. We cannot withhold from Him, He did not withhold from us. If we want a relationship with our Father, our Lord, we must submit to Him, and lay all we have at His feet. We have to hand over the reigns, and trust that He knows more about us, and what is good for us than we ever will. We must offer nothing less than our lives, for without Him, we would have no life at all. We are here to serve Him, and glorify Him. We cannot do that if we regard the ‘good’ things in our life as being above Him. For if we refuse to give Him all of us, we walk the line of idolatry.

“For he that seeks to save his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake, shall keep it unto life eternal”.

John 12:25

May the Lord keep all of you until the day of His return,

Grace.