What's Best

In the Sunday School class I teach, I'm going over Francis Chan's book Crazy Love. In it he gives a portrait of the lukewarm church goer. Referencing Revelations 3, where Jesus tells the lukewarm church of Laodicea He will "spit them out" of His mouth, Chan explains that when we give a Holy God the leftovers of our life, it is not only utterly disgusting to God, but also completely unsatisfying for us as well.

As we talk about this God who asks us to surrender everything to follow Him, I can tell by the looks on the girls' faces the notion is a little unpleasant to them.

 Utterly disgusting?

Isn't that a little harsh? We're only human, after all.

 One sweet girl was transparent enough to say what many of them were probably thinking, "If God is so loving, why does God demand everything? Why does He get so mad if we don't give up everything?"

Okay, let's lay aside the obvious answers that He's God and He gets to pick the terms. I could have argued that since He gave up everything for us, it's really not unreasonable for Him to ask for total surrender from  us. That would be true.

However, I think the best response is that He asks everything because He is loving and He is good.

God does not ask for everything because He's selfish, He asks because He's loving.

Think about it. If the most satisfying, fulfilling thing we can ever experience is a fully surrendered relationship with Him, then it's NOT selfish to want that for us.

 He knows what's best, and He IS what's best.

Knowing this truth, wouldn't it be unkind of God NOT to want us to do what will bring us fully to Him?