All or Nothing?

Are you giving it your all, or are you living a life overcome with depression because of your circumstances?  Maybe a broken marriage?  Maybe you are caught up in the chains of alcoholism or addiction, or have you just given up completely?  I have a little experience with this, because up until April 30th of this year, I had given up on life completely, thinking that my situation was too big to overcome.  I truly believed there was no way out.  But I had forgotten one very important thing.  Nothing is too big, too awful or too hard for God!

You see, I knew God had a plan for my life, but I was so lost in my anger, depression and hurt feelings, all of them emotions we should never trust, that I turned my back on God and everything He wanted for me!  I was the most irresponsible, angry, hurtful and disrespectful person you could meet but all of that changed on April 30th when God reached down into the my muddy pig pen, (for the umpteenth time?) and told me, "Oh no you don't!  I'm not done with you yet!"

I'm not trying to beat anyone down here, I mean, I am the biggest mess of a person there is on this planet!  In fact, if there were an award, I'd have a shelf  full of them! No Shame, Best Whiner, Most Critical, Most Judgmental, the list is very long and I'm sure the devil has a shelf  just full of them all engraved and everything, but when God reaches down into your pitiful life and blesses your socks up, it blows those awards up and the devil ends up with a lot of egg on his face!  So as Paul did, I have decided to "focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead."

Now just think about that for a moment:  Paul was a Pharisee.  One of the highest levels of the religious realm of the times of Jesus. He was responsible for the deaths of several Christians before Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus.  He then became an apostle of Christ, but imagine what he would have seen in his rear view mirror?  All the Christians he had put to death?  How could he look in the rear view?  He never would have been as powerful for Christ had he focused on his past, so he had to stop looking over his shoulder!  This is something I have had a very hard time doing.  Letting go of the past.  The devil is constantly using it against all of us but we don't realize it!   So get your eyes focused on what is ahead and let's get going because there is a lot of work to do!  So many are lost, and they need to be saved! 

So is it going to be All or Nothing?  All of the gifts and wonderful plans God has laid out for you, or none of it?  It's a choice YOU must make for yourself.  I have fibromyalgia which is a very painful neurological condition but God is bigger than my pain.  I have a messed up marriage but God is bigger than my messed up marriage. He is bigger than anything that comes against me because "no weapon formed against (me) you will prosper!"  (Isaiah 54:17).

Just remember that no matter what your mess and no matter how big it is, you really should give God another try.  Do it just one more time....try it one more time...and have a changed mindset.  "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:2).

Please give God another try?   Just one more time?