All-consuming

God wants to be everything in our lives. He wants all of us, not just part. He desires to be placed in the top spot or all our priorities, so that other things, such as our love for family, is a distant second (so distant that it might even be seen as hatred in comparison…see Luke 14.26).

Ryan McGladdery spoke to us yesterday about Colossians 1:17, “[Jesus] existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.” Jesus holds everything in this world together, and without his active intervention, things would spin out of control, both literally and figuratively. We ought to live our lives with Jesus in the prime spot, forming our values and informing our view of the world we live in.

God desires all of us, and hates being relegated to a more trivial place in our lives. We’re going to hear from Pastor Gene later in the summer that God is a jealous God (Ex. 34.14). He is jealous in a righteous way that is totally foreign to our human understanding of jealousy. His jealousy is primarily about over this matter: He wants our total devotion. Israel provoked God’s jealousy over and over by putting idols in place of God. We don’t usually actually worship false gods such as Baal or Asherah, but, as Ryan pointed out, we often put money, human relationships, escapism, food, or other things in place of God as our “sustaining force.” Only God can truly sustain us.

He doesn’t need our love, for he was perfectly complete before he created the universe. But he created us for the purpose of having a relationship with us, showing us his glory, and having his people reflect his character to the rest of the world (Romans 9.23, 2 Cor. 3.18, 2 Cor. 4.6, Eph. 1.11-12).

God wants us to find our satisfaction and sustenance from him alone for at least a couple of reasons. First, it works the best for us. God created us, and he knows how we function best. It’s like operating your car with gasoline, as the manufacturer recommends, rather than dumping carrot juice in to the tank. Second, God wants to bless us and satisfy us completely so that other can see how good and glorious he is. God’s people are the objects of his mercy so that our lives can shout out God’s goodness. We ought to be walking tributes to the grace and mercy of God (1 Peter 2.9-10).

Romans 12.1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship.” I’ve heard it said that the problem with living sacrifices is that we keep walking off the alter. Let’s daily re-commit our whole selves to God, placing our whole life on the alter so that God can work his grace and mercy in us, and through us bring glory to himself.