Am I Procrastinating Being “All In?”

When my kids were young, I taught each of them how to swim. They had been in many kiddy pools up to their knees, but had never truly swam in a deep pool past their neck. As I was teaching them, they all had a tendency to hang onto my neck, the side of the pool or some float nearby. It wasn’t until they turned loose, or let’s say, I turned loose that they experienced being “ALL IN.” Then they moved themselves across the water without my assistance.

You will never learn to swim by just reading a book, lying out on a lawn chair, or just watching how to swim on a YouTube video. Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who, along with her father and other family members, helped many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust during World War II and was imprisoned for it. Her most famous book, The Hiding Place, describes the ordeal. When you finish reading her story, you will surely see that Corrie was  “ALL IN” for the Lord.

Jim Elliott was a missionary who took the love and light of God to the Indians in Ecuador. It cost him and four other missionaries their lives, but today, thousands of those people know Christ as a result of men who were “All In.” Jim lived by his own saying; "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

Would you say that people today in the body of Christ are, “ALL IN?” Can you and I truly say, “Lord, I’m all in?” There have always been times in the history of the church, where God’s people have grown SLACK. In Revelation 3:2 John writes, “Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.” Those are very strong words, but we dare not ignore them, since they are from the Lord Jesus Himself.

We have so many excuses where we say, “I’m just too busy; my work requires so much of me. I have to pay my bills; my family needs me. I just can’t commit like I want to.” That all may be true, but what about our Lord and Savior who requires not just 30% or even 65%? He requires that we love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Where does that Scripture fit in with our own agenda?

When will we come to the place that we say, Lord, I am yours regardless. Lord I will give regardless. Lord I will serve regardless. Lord I will be faithful to You regardless. Friend, don’t get caught up in the quicksand of complacency when it comes to saying, “Lord, regardless I’m All In.”

There are many undertows in the world today that will attempt to suck you into its vortex. Will you be bold and courageous enough to declare like Paul, “³⁸ And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[a] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. ³⁹ No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Declare with Paul, “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me."
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