Jesus, You Gave It All

Jesus, You Gave It All

For over the past year, I have been on what I would like to call a furlough from my adult life in exchange for making a little boy’s dream come true. We, here at the Slocum household, have basically traveled every weekend to one place or another and when we have been home, I shamelessly have enjoyed the comforts what it has to offer.  Over the past year, I have given up most of everything I thought was important to me only to find out, what was happening right in front of me was far better than what I could have ever asked for.

However, during this time a song on began to fill my heart as well, and I began to listen to the words I knew from heart in hopes I would hear what God was trying to say to me. This song has always been one of my favorites and if truth be told, I realized I had been taking the meaning behind the it for granted. Funny how things work out like that. In fact, I thought I had things figured out and didn’t really need the wisdom of the lyrics and I would go as far to say, I thought I was on a whole other playing field. But God, in His infinity sovereignty has shown me, I still have some things to learn and just how much I needed to return to the fundamental’s. It is my hope that I can convey what God is trying to teach me through the words of this song especially as we head into the Resurrection season.

Jesus, You Gave It All
Hillsong Worship
Lord, I lift my voice in praise to You
For the love You placed inside of me
Lord, I give my life my heart and soul to You alone
And with every breath that comes from me
Will flow Your mercy and Your grace
Proclaiming love and liberty for all who have an ear to hear
And Your love stirs faith and hope in me
And Your grace brings power to set this sinner free
And your blood pour’s joy into my life
Jesus, You gave it all for me

As I went through line by line and applied it to my life I couldn’t help but wonder when was the last time I praised God for placing His love inside me for someone? A long time. Sure, I love with a deep love, but I have come to take that love for granted. I have stopped looking at people through the eye’s of God and the last time I stopped to take the time to asked Him what He wanted me to do so there could be a godly impact on other people’s life is when I felt to pay for someone’s groceries at Giant Eagle. Although I have had ample times when some one has come across my path to show the love of God as well as tons of opportunities to share the hope I have within me, I never gave it a second thought. I have no excuses, I just forgot what a smile could do for a person and how it doesn’t cost me a dime, just a readjustment of attitude. And while I am at it, when was the last time I showed mercy to someone who needed it? When did I apply grace to a situation where evil had a stronghold? When was the last time I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was good and He has only good for me? When was the last time I reigned in my tongue and used my words to edify? Or called upon His power to heal the sick?

To the world and quite frankly to myself, it would appear, I have lost my first love and how it’s affecting how I see other’s but one could say, it also is damaging my soul. Or maybe the problem isn’t the fact I have forgotten the fundamental’s of what it is to be a Christian, but instead I have forgotten who I belong to and the price He has paid for me to be free. And for me, the thing that made me go huh, was the last line of the song.

See on that fateful day, He truly did give it all for me. He sacrificed His dignity by allowing Himself to be seen naked. You don’t even need to ask me If I would follow suite because I think you know the answer to that. He allowed His mind to be tested not only from the crown of thorns but also by allowing the voices of other’s to ring in His ear who were crying out for Him to be crucified. He allowed their words to become the deciding factor in the process of whether He lived or died. Not to mention the mocking He endured from those same people on the way to the cross. If it would have been me, I would have smacked some people silly and it is for this reason, I am not God and He is.
He allowed His blood to be spilled so I can apply it to the areas where the enemy is hard at work trying to destroy the faith and hope that is within me. There has never been another person who has shown just how much love He has by allowing His breath to dissipate as He takes on the sins and cares of this world causing a separation from the source of life itself. But what we really forget is how He showed off by conquering the grave by raising from the dead in all His power and glory. Amazing this man is indeed.

So, as we come into the most precious season there is, and we give up what we think will make us right in His sight, and attend church services, and do all those thing we do, may we truly remember the reason for the season, Jesus, the man who gave it all for the freedom to live the life we were made for, son’s and daughter’s of a eternal King.