Youthful Commitment

I remember as a young kid how I trusted the Lord. I grew up in a home where there was respect and love for God. My parents lived out their faith in front of me. I remember simply loving God with my whole heart. As I grew older and had more things coming at me, I remember making choices that were not what the Lord would want from me. I remember somehow justifying my behavior. I would wander off from Him and then return to Him. This happened way more often than I care to admit. Jeremiah records the Lord speaking to Israel who was doing the same thing – they had wandered off and the Lord calls them out on it. Check this out….

I believe the Lord loves simple faith. It’s not complicated and hard to describe. I think the bottom line is: “Do you love God with your whole heart?” If my heart is divided between the Lord and things of this life, then my faith is weak. The Lord will not share space in my heart with sin. He wants to be Lord of all or nothing at all. That is really pretty clear throughout scripture. As I surrender more of my life to Him, He gives me freedom to live life.

I believe until I breathe my last breath I will fight the flesh and the desires of my flesh. I grow closer to the Lord when I surrender those struggles to Him on a daily (hourly or minute by minute) basis.

I think it’s healthy to remember back to when I first met the Lord. That was a simple trust and a pure love. I was naïve enough to simply believe in Him. As I’ve grown older, my love for Him is much deeper and way bigger. In some ways I’ve made my faith way too complex. It still comes down to some daily choices to trust Him or not.