Consumed with Jesus!

Last Sunday night I preached from James 4:13-17. I must say that the passage is really convicting when it comes to our commitment to God. So often times we want just enough of God to make us comfortable. The real challenge and goal in life is to be so consumed with Jesus that we are willing to sacrifice our dreams, our families, our all for him. I am afraid that many want what Wilbur Rees described in his most appropriate poem concerning our commitment to Christ:

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

After last Sunday night, I decided to write out a prayer to the Lord. Here is what I wrote Monday morning:

"Lord, today I want to surrender my all to you. I have made comfort a god, and I want to surrender my comfort to you. I will allow you to have your way with me no matter how painful it may be. My only desire in life is to glorify you. I surrender my dreams and desires to you. Any dream or desire that does not glorify you, I ask that you remove. Lord, today I pledge my head to heaven for your gospel and glory."

“Jesus, be Jesus in me No longer me but Thee Resurrection power, fill me this hour Jesus be Jesus in me”