Wholly Committed

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.
              1 Peter 3:13-15a


Committment. It's a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many people. I believe that's why there are so many couples living together before marriage, or instead of getting married. Oh they say it's so they can "test drive" the relationship, but deep down, they are scared of being committed to someone.  Comittiment is easy when things in the relationship are going well, but I find it very interesting that so many couples who have "test drove" their relationship for many years, end up divorcing not long after the marriage license is signed.

And me in my self-rightous attitude used to think I was not afraid of committment. But as it says in Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

As the Proverbs 31 online study of What Happens When Women Say Yes to God by Lysa TerKeurst looked at Chapter 4 this week, Lysa dug deeper into the concept of radical obedience that I wrote about last week. And true to form, God is pinpointing the areas that I think I don't need to work on.  He is revealing to me how disobeying and falling short in one area of my life points back so closely to my committment level.

Why did I think for so long that I didn't have a committment problem? God is showing me that it's because I wasn't actually committing or obeying in the fulness that He requires.

So why is committing to God such a scary thing? Am I scared of getting physically or emotionally hurt? Scared of what others will think? Fear of the unknown? Peter addresses those reasons in the verses above. But he calls us to set our hearts apart Christ as Lord. And that is exactly what I think holds us back. At least it is for me.

It's the putting Christ and His ways as the only priority of my heart. And what exactly is my heart? In the Hebrew culture of the Bible, the heart was credited with being the center or core of a personality. It was the spiritual center and your life flowed from there. Your heart defines you, determines who you are, how you think, and what you do.  All of your emotions, motives and will come from your heart and it reflects your true identity.  That is why Proverbs 4:23 says to guard your heart above all else.

Our natural tendencies, or our sinful nature, doesn't want to be stifled or controlled by anything other than our wants and desires. And that's what makes being wholly committed to God scary to me, and so many others. And it's also why I believe so many people like to "test drive" their relationship with God. They don't want to be committed to Him in all areas of their heart because it might mean they have to give up something.

But being wholly committed to God is where I want to be. I want to be a woman who doesn't have to think twice about being wholly committed to God in every area of my heart.

What about you? Are you testing driving your relationship with God and holding back your heart from Him instead of setting it apart for Christ?