All In or All Out

When we make a decision to follow Christ, to put our life into His hands, we will come against opposition which will push us into making another decision. That decision will be “AM I ALL IN or ALL OUT?

That may be hard to understand, but, when you truly look at yourself you will see that, at times you are all in, and at other times you are mostly out. Sometimes you are on fire for God, and other times you are not sure what is going on, and it leads you to question God. My aim here is not to make anyone feel condemned, but, we need to look at ourselves from the viewpoint of Jesus Christ. When you look at Him you see that He was always ALL IN, He did what He did because he did not doubt.

When you love your wife or family as you should, and someone comes along and questions your love for them, I can guarantee that you will send them packing, because you know that you know you love them. When you question God because you truly don’t understand, as in the case of Mary when she enquired of the Angel “How shall this be as I am a virgin” God was not upset because she asked to understand, and when she was told she accepted, so it wasn’t a sin. But, how many times have you questioned God because what you have asked for is taking too long to materialise?

When you are ALL IN, there will be no doubt, just the same as in your love for your wife and family. I know and understand that we all have fears and anxieties, and, I am not knocking you. But, (And I’m talking to myself here when I say that) we need to come at this from the standpoint of Jesus. He had FOCUS, and with that focus, came FAITH. With His faith came FOCUS, they both work for each other. When you have faith you will focus; and, when you focus correctly you will build up faith. The bible says that “Where your treasure is, there your heart is also” IS GOD YOUR TREASURE? You are God’s treasure; His focus on you is 100% every day, every hour, every minute and every second.

When God is your sole treasure then your focus will be on Him and Him alone, your trust will also be in Him and Him alone. When you see that God is your treasure, you will also understand that God is THE BEGINNING and THE END. It all begins and ends with God, God has all the plans and purposes, and He wants to share them with us. It is God’s job to reveal out of you that which he has placed within you, But, God will do it in His time and in His way. But, and this But will always be a stumbling block to us, God’s timing will never be the same as ours, and worst of all will be the route which He takes to accomplish it, it will not be our way either. It may even make us question whether we really believe in God at all.

When you know that you know that God is on your side, and he loves you unconditionally, then you understand that you don’t need to be an expert on the bible, but, you do need passion. When you get married you know that you know that you love your wife, that’s why you’re marrying her. You don’t know everything about her, but, you know that you love her passionately. Time will reveal who she really is, and time will reveal things about her that you don’t like, that seems to be the moment when people begin to question their marriage. Looking at divorce, how many times have we read in the papers or heard our friends say “She/He is not the person I thought they were, or, they are not the person I married”

The question is; what did you expect, and, what were you looking for? Now I am no expert, but, I have read that men are looking for a wife who is like their mother (subconsciously) obviously not in every aspect but in what she does and how she shows her love etc. That only causes us problems because our wife is not our mother; she is an individual in her own right. Our job as men is to find out, and, love her unconditionally, no matter what she turns out like. After all she accepts us warts and all, when two people fall in love, if it is for looks only then I believe it will not last long. But, if it is based on love which has been cultivated over a period of courting, then I believe it stands a better chance.

Your wife has a path and a destiny, you are together to compliment her and help her in that journey, likewise she is there for you too. When you put your life into Christ’s hands, He will lead you to the right person, the person who will journey with you and not against you. But, you must agree to start your married life off with the right attitude, which is “Whatever I find out about her/him I’M IN” Once you begin with that attitude, you will not be disappointed with what you find out. When your focus is on God and God alone, you need to accept that it will take time for you to understand God, and, please believe me when I say that you will not always like what He does.

We (If we are honest here) expect God (At times) to do things our way, we pray “Father, have your way in me, show me your way, but, can you make it tomorrow please?” You may smile or laugh at that, or you may say “Not me I always wait on God” if you do then praise God. But, if you’re really honest you will look back on your life and you will have noticed that there were times when you didn’t wait, or accept the way that God did it, and the time it took to be accomplished.

We love signs and wonders, but we don’t like to wait. Let’s look back at Joseph, God gave him an awesome vision, we read that it took a long time to come to pass, and, if we are honest again here, when we see how it worked out, we would have questioned God.

Throughout his trials and tribulations, I believe that Joseph was ALL IN, I believe that he understood about the God who was handed down to him through his parents, he understood that this God was an awesome and mighty God, who couldn’t be fathomed out by man’s mere intellect. I believe that he had decided in his heart that no matter what, he was ALL IN. It may have been one of the things that kept him out of the arms of Potiphar’s wife? I do believe that Joseph would have questioned God somewhere along the line. No man can go through all His Christian life without questioning God sometimes. But, we see that the end of the story justified the means, God allowed him to go through those trials and tribulations so as to change him into the man that God knew he would be.

God knows what He is doing; we don’t have a clue from day to day what is going to happen. Look at Job, one day all is well, he is a successful man whom God has blessed, when, all of a sudden in one day he lost the lot. Children, cattle the lot, yes he was angry, but, in his anger he did not sin by blaming God. He tore his robes and worshipped God, have you ever lost it all in one day? Job must have spent a lot of time with God because when disaster struck, he said “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away” In all of this, he never sinned and God was pleased. Job understood that God knew what He was doing and was always right, we should never question God’s motives for doing things His way, simply because He is motivated by Love. HE IS LOVE.

Ecclesiastes 3 talks about TIME, there is a time etc. God has His time and we have ours, God will never be moved nor motivated by our time. When we are 100% in with God we need to set it into our hearts to trust Him and His timing, to trust the way He does it and how long He takes to bring it to pass. Honestly answer the next question: Has God ever been wrong in your life? Your answer is NO! You may not have understood the way in which it was done or the where, how or what, but God has never been wrong has He?

My whole point is this, when you have made the right decision in your heart; that no matter what happens you will choose to love and follow God; that you know that you know without a shadow of a doubt HE LOVES YOU! You know John 3:16 God so loved etc, so you know that God loves you; and, that everything He does is motivated by love. HE IS LOVE. When you know and understand that, then you can say with peace in your heart “As or me and my house, we will serve the Lord” Commitment in your heart put’s your focus in the right direction, your focus on God brings faith in Him, and your faith will come back to your heart to raise your commitment to the next level. What goes up must come down, what you give comes back to you abundantly.

God loves you too much to give to you, do for you or do too you too early, He knows it will not do you any good; it will crush you and not lift you higher. If God loves you that much, and He only wants the best for you in everything, then what is stopping you from putting your complete faith and trust in Him and His ways and timing?

ARE YOU ALL IN?

You can answer that one.

God Bless You.

Ian Campbell.