All In

Today’s WORD (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/110412.cfm) reminds me that I should give God my all.

In poker (don’t know if they also use this in other games) all in is the term they use when you’re betting all that you have. You are ready to lay your cards on the table and bet all your chips. You believe in your cards (or you have no other option) that you are ready and willing to bet all that you have for those cards. You are ready to lose everything, and to gain everything.

This is how God wants us to love and serve Him. All in. He wants us to love and serve him with all we have got. With all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, with all our mind, never leaving anything for ourselves. God wants us to fully trust in Him and to submit ourselves to his will. God wants us to love him with all we’ve got, never holding back anything for ourselves. God wants us to love until it hurts.

Why? 

Only when we love with everything we’ve got, only when we surrender fully and totally to Him, only when we give of ourselves, will we be really empty of ourselves. When we are empty of ourselves, it is the only time God can fill us with everything that is of His. Only then can we fully receive his love and blessings, because only then will we have space for it in our lives. That is what we’ll get if we go all in in loving and serving God.

How do I love God? Do I go all in, giving everything I have, or do I hold back? Do I just love him when I feel like it, or when I want to? How do I serve God? Do I serve him just when it fits my schedule, when it’s beneficial for me?  Do I just serve when I have nothing else to do? What prevents me from giving God my all?

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to rest and refresh my body and of course, my soul. Lord, thank you for reminding me that you expect nothing but the best from me. You expect me to give you my all. Lord, I ask that you help me surrender. I may have been hurt in the past and I am afraid to give you my all, thinking that you may also hurt me. But Lord, I know deep inside that the only way to truly live is to love and serve you with all I’ve got. Lord, I am laying my cards on the table. I am giving you my all, not because I am forced to, or because I have no other choice. I am giving you my all because you deserve it. I am giving you my all because I know it is the only way to live. I am giving you my all because I know that only when I am empty of myself can I be truly filled with you. Amen.

Blessed Sunday!

In Christ,

-g-