The whole shebang, the whole enchilada, the whole nine yards... the whole thing. That's what God wants of us. He wants the whole of us. He wants ALL of you and me.
"Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind and with ALL your strength.'" Mark 12:30 (NIV)
I have tried the "you can have almost all of me" thing. And it doesn't work. If I hang on to one part of me that I want to keep for myself, it ends up corrupting the whole rest of my relationship with God. Jesus says, a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. If I hold one part back, then I begin to do things like point to how "good" I am in my "good" areas. I begin to be self righteous about my good behaviors and pretty lenient on myself on the parts in which I want be my own god. It just doesn't work. My relationship with God becomes a percentage thing... I'm 60-40 good-bad. It doesn't work like that. It's all or nothing.
Like the song of Ado Annie in Oklahoma - "with me its all er nothin'... it can't be in between... it can't be now and then... no half and half romance will do. The King of Kings and Lord or Lords deserves our all in all. I am painfully becoming more aware each day of the parts I hold back from Him. He is redemptive of those parts, but He's not afraid to discipline me to let go of them.
