Some people watch a movie to the very end of the credits and squeeze a bottle down to the very last drop. I personally scrape every last morsel of peanut butter out of every jar.
Some things are worth it through and through, straight down to the core and down to the very last ounce. In a way, that’s a description of how devoted I want to be to God.
All that I am and have comes from Him. Paul preaches in Acts 17, “For ‘In Him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed His offspring’” (28).
Isn’t it fitting, then, that every fiber of my being live for Him? I think that’s what David is saying in Psalm 103:1. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”
God made human beings for Him, and from the beginning, we can see a beautiful relationship of dependence and adoration. In fact, the greatest commandment still stands: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
Jesus seconded that in Matthew 22:37. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
That sounds like an all-in approach. There should be nothing for me to hide and nothing for me to fear. If my heart beats, lungs breath, brain thinks, hands work, and feet move, then all of it should be done for the glory and good pleasure of my Maker.
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him … Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” – Colossians 3:17, 23
“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” – Philippians 2:13
I was recently reading in Exodus, when God gave instructions for the tabernacle, a holy place where He would dwell among His people in the wilderness. He appointed certain men “to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft” because He had filled them “with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship” (31:3-5). Human skill, among all other things, is a gift from God intended to glorify God.
The truth is, I owe my Redeemer my whole life. Even if I owned heaven and earth and offered it all to God as a love offering, it would still not be enough to honor His greatness. So I live each day out of gratitude and praise, because all things in heaven and on earth are subject to the King of kings and Lord of lords.
