Love Riotናሙና

Day 4

Everything Means Everything

Mark 8:34-38, Galatians 2:20-21, Luke 9:57-62

“God, I pray Thee. Light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” 

These words were written by 20-year-old Jim Elliot in 1948. Eight years later, Jim was killed by the Huaorani people as he attempted to reach them with the gospel. 

Would Jim have hesitated in praying that prayer if he’d known what following Jesus would cost him? I don’t believe so. These fervent words of sold-out devotion were fulfilled the day he died. His short, but full life consumed with undivided passion for Jesus Christ. He was willing to give all.

Jim’s story deeply challenges me. It makes me ask: How much would I be willing to give for Jesus?

Jesus commanded radical obedience in Mark 8:34–37, when He said, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

There’s no such thing as a complacent follower of Christ. We’re either following Him or we’re not. Not every follower of Jesus is called to physically die for Him. But we are all called to die to ourselves—to our sin and old way of living. Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). 

We often settle for going halfway with God. We think, Okay, God, you can have this part of my life and that area, but don’t mess with these other things. Don’t ask me to change this or give up that.

God desires us to live with unconditional and wholehearted surrender, laying everything before Him. What might God be asking you to give up and surrender to Him? A lifestyle that’s impure and dishonoring to Jesus? Entertainment choices? A relationship? 

Seek Him and ask, What is keeping me from You? What do I need to sacrifice to draw closer to You? Hand over the keys to your life, and then listen for His call to action. 

Like Jim, we don’t know what surrender may cost us. But it’s worth it. Jim also wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” That kind of life—one of sold-out surrender isn’t the life of a fool. It’s the life of a follower.