Today, Pastor Andy speaks about being fully His. We need to understand what it means to fully belong to God and also what a real Covenant relationship with our Lord God means.
Why do some people get a lot of out of their Christianity and others don't seem to get so much? How can there be one God, who loves everyone equally yet people can have so many different experiences of Him? If one person is experiencing a lot of God, yet another is not, where does this deficit arise from – maybe us….certainly not God! If a deficit is there it is surely to do with our walk with God. Do we understand as we should? Christianity is not a religion. It's a covenant relationship with the Living God. It's not a casual relationship. Also, it is not a one-way relationship.
A covenant relationship whether in marriage or business always involves more than one person and cannot be only one way. God’s original design for marriage is the best example here. For a marriage to work at best it must involve two people giving everything they are to the other person - otherwise there will be a deficit in that marriage. In the original design of Christianity, as God made it, He gave Himself fully for us and we are meant to give ourselves fully to him. God gave all for us (His son on a cross), but do we give all to Him or hold back parts of our lives?
If we hold back parts of ourselves from God, He cannot bless those parts. Often we start at the cross, becoming his, spending the rest of our lives slowly giving Him more of ourselves. Ideally, God’s plan is for a place of full exchange when we meet at the cross in relationship with Him. The problem with only giving God bits of our lives is that this affects the experience of the relationship. To be a totally fulfilling relationship we need to surrender all to him.
In Leviticus 26:11-12 (NIV), God says “I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people”. God tells the people of the Old Testament many times about His desire to be their God and for them to be His people in relationship with Him. We see God constantly faithful to the people of Israel in the Old Testament, but the people of Israel constantly unfaithful to Him! However, we see God constantly forgiving them and restoring them. God looked to another way to restore His people, a second covenant not dependant on the people’s ability.
Jeremiah announces this in the book of Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 31 “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant, a new agreement with my people, the children of Israel and the people of Judah……..It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors because they broke my covenant time and time again, but I was always a husband to them”. God’s plan for us now is no different – for him to be our God and us to be His people. Read 2 Corinthians 6:16 and Hebrews 8:10. However, we cannot blame God for an incomplete Christian experience if we keep parts of ourselves back from Him. Every part of ourselves we bring to God is blessed and given back to us multiplied over. When I am weak, He gives me strength. When I am depressed he gives me joy. For my spirit of heaviness He gives me a garment of praise. This is the beautiful exchange at the cross of Jesus. Let us give ourselves to Him fully.
