Jesus, the Lord of All

...because Jesus chooses me first.

Jesus must be Lord of all of my life or He cannot be Lord at all. My whole life must be His. That does not mean that I must be perfect to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. It does not mean that I must live the rest of my life sinlessly or that I won’t struggle to give some things up to the Lord.

Most of us, for example, are emotionally attached to things such as food, friends, job and lifestyle. These give us feelings of security, identity and meaning. But as the Holy Spirit slowly penetrates our hearts, we realize our identity and security must be in the Lord.

You might say, “Well, I’m doing pretty well. I have given most of those areas to the Lord; I am holding back just one or two”. I don’t want to shock you, but that is not enough. Jesus does not want 51% or even 98% control of our lives. He wants to be in control of all areas.

Floyd McClung writes, “Some professing Christians want all the blessings of being a Christian – such as forgiveness, healing, hope and eternal life – but they do not want to pay the price of dying to their own will and letting Jesus rule over them. Jesus does not want to break our will, but He will cross it. We must put His will above ours. In that process we must die to ourselves in the sense that we will not insist on living for what we want first, but put His character and His desires above our own”.

Jesus Himself said, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” (Matthew 16:25NLT). I like how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am”. This verse assumes that if we want to follow Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we must give up our life wholeheartedly. Not some. Not most of it. But all of our life. It is a process of ‘giving all to Jesus’. The relationship we have with the Lord should be dynamic and growing – not static. His lordship must be ever expanding and increasing over each new stage of our Christian lives.

Question: Is Jesus the Lord of all in your life?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.