All or Nothing

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. --Revelation 3:15-17

In Tuesday's election, despite the fact that many young people registered to vote, only a small percentage of them appeared at their polling places. Many claim there simply wasn't a good candidate, or that they hadn't made a decision on some of the issues. Ongoing experiences with my peers have continually shown me that young people are notorious for waiting until the last minute to make a decision, only to back out of that decision at the last minute. Granted, there are times when an emergency keeps us from honoring a prior commitment, but what about the times when we just "don't' feel like" doing something we said we would?

How many of us do this type of thing in our commitment (or lack thereof) to God? We promise him our hearts, but then rarely follow through in living out a committed relationship with him. We remain indecisive about whether we truly want to live for God, or whether we desire to continue in our humanity.

God is not amused by our indecisiveness. In fact, it makes him sick. Those who offer only lip-service and a facade of a Christian lifestyle are lukewarm. They are neither fully in submission to Christ, nor fully in submission to the world. They are on the fence, thinking they still have time to just wait around and see if they "feel like" being a Christian or if they "feel like" God's word is true.

God's character is one of absolutes. To God there is no gray area. A relationship with God is all or nothing. You are either completely his, or completely the world's. God requires a decision to commit to living his way, and that is a decision we make ourselves. God cannot force us to love him. Because of the nature of his absolute sovereignty, he cannot tolerate only a partial commitment. If we are lukewarm, he wants nothing to do with us. In fact, he says that he will spew us out of his mouth, thus being separated from him forever.

God, in his love for us, has a lot he wants to share with us and things he wants to teach us, but we will never make ourselves fully available to those things unless we make a decision to belong to him. God loves us completely, but we wants us to be completely his. There are no partial blessings for those who commit to him only when it is convenient or easy. There is no gray in God's black and white world. Our hearts must beat wholly for him, and our lives must distinctively display a reflection of him.