February 28 – Lord of All (1 Peter 3:15-16)

“In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.”(1 Peter 3:15)

IN WORD:
When we became Christians, we confessed Jesus as Lord. When we pray, we call Him Lord. But as we live, is He really Lord in our hearts? The words of our mouths do not tell the whole story. There is a depth in most of our hearts to which Jesus’ Lordship does not go. As much as we call Him Lord, most of us have held back a corner of our heart to ourselves. His Lordship extends only so far.
The work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us to maturity in Christ — i.e., sanctification — is this: to extend the Lordship of Jesus to every inch of our lives. It is a contentious process. We want the benefits of being a Christian — such as salvation, peace, joy and the like — but we want to retain a little autonomy as well. We have internal struggles that our friends and family do not see. There are places in our hearts that we guard, holding the Holy Spirit at a distance. We like to control the tempo of our discipleship.
To the extent that we do this, we base our lives on a false supposition — that we have the right to govern ourselves, even after we’ve supposedly laid our all on the altar. It is an unwise position to try to manage Jesus’ Lordship at all when we control even a portion of ourselves. It’s just an illusion.

IN DEED:
Is Jesus Lord of 100% of your heart? Your thoughts, your behaviors, your dreams — are they yours or His? What corners of your being have you retained for yourself? Whatever they are, they are footholds for the enemy and shelters for the sinful flesh. Jesus desires more of you than you have given Him to this point. He wants it all. This seems like painful surrender to us, but from His perspective, it is a happy day when one of His people lays it all on the altar. Blessing is the result. He is trustworthy with everything we give Him, and He will manage our lives better than we ever have. At no point resist Him; just set Him apart as Lord. You won’t regret it!

“Christ is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all.”
–Hudson Taylor-