Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
Nearly 3500 years ago, Moses instructed the people of God with this basic task, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Interestingly enough the Hebrew word for “all” in this verse means “all”! Most of us have the strictest intent to give at least some, and perhaps even most. Yet, “all” seems rather cumbersome and extreme. However, imagine if one could at least give 99% of his love and service to God. What would this look like? A study was performed several years ago to discover what a 99% success rate might look like in various areas of life.
What you’d get if 99% were good enough:
No phone service for 15 minutes each day.
1.7 million pieces of first class mail lost each day.
35,000 newborn babies dropped by doctors or nurses each year
200,000 people getting the wrong drug prescriptions each year
Unsafe drinking water three days a year.
Three misspelled words on the average page of type.
2 million people would die from food poisoning each year.
While none of us would find 99% acceptable in these common areas of life, we shutter to imagine offering up to God this much. Instead, we choose compromise. It has been said of this sin, Satan’s primary weapon to stop the believer, to seduce the believer, to neutralize the effectiveness of the believer in Jesus Christ is the weapon of…compromise.
To help us recognize and conquer areas of compromise in our lives, Christian authors Doug Sherman and William Hendricks offered this advice in their book, Your Work Matters to God.
Commit ahead of time to do the right thing.
Never underestimate evil and flirting with dangerous temptations, thus being exposed to far more powerful evils.
Recognize the numerous forms of compromise lurking at every corner of life.
Recognize the smooth flatteries and enticing fantasies of temptations. For example, overstating expenses on your expense report. After all, you company has a large budget and you’ve been a loyal employee who works overtime.
Don’t succumb to slick rationalizations. I have a Christian acquaintance who is proud of the fact that through the process of bartering he can avoid paying additional income tax, even though this is illegal.
Never make a sudden, deliberate choice to give in to sin.
Consider the costly consequences of sin.
Let’s take this good advice to heart and choose today not to compromise. After all, we serve a God who promises, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).
Striving to Give Jesus “All”,
Jason