WHAT WHOLEHEARTEDNESS LOOKS LIKE

Many people come to the realization that God wants them to live a wholehearted life, so they take the plunge, make the com- mitment to Jesus, and even declare it to those around them. “I’m going to do it right this time. I’m going to be wholehearted with the Lord!” They are undoubtedly committed to being some- thing, but may have no idea as to what it will look like. After six months of discouragement, they quit. They were sincere at the beginning, but lacking a model, they failed. In looking for a model of wholeheartedness, we need to look no further than the words of Jesus and recognize that our love for God must be expressed in obedience and not merely religious sentiment.

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me…if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word… (John 14:21-23)

Many people today are stumbling through their Christian walks with little experience of God. The message that is popular today promises more comfort without really challenging us to die

to our flesh in our pursuit of absolute obedience. Our programs go on and on, completely lacking in power and impact, even growing bigger, and we assume that more people doing our “church thing” is good, even if our church thing is shallow, powerless and devoid of passion. Like Samson, some of these churches feel they’re at the top of their game spiritually, but are entirely unaware that God’s presence and power has left them. As for the few that are aware, they’re not even alarmed by it. They’re convinced they had a little bit of it once, and that was good enough.

Half-heartedness with God is a horrible way to live. Half- hearted followers have too much of God to enjoy sin and too much sin to enjoy God. They are left somewhere in between with a serious spiritual dichotomy, and are usually quite miser- able. While giving verbal assent to the superiority of the things of God, they give themselves much more fully to things that feed their flesh. Until we come to a place of wholeheartedness before God, we will never be effective or satisfied.

Frighteningly large percentages of the body of Christ live half-hearted lives and accept it as normal. In Africa, where cen- turies of superstition and animism pervade, a radical Christian culture of prayer and fasting is growing. In the former Soviet Union, Christian believers are rising to places of influence and bringing their outspoken faith with them. China’s believers are evangelizing and teaching new believers to live out their faith in the midst of persecution…all the while, American believers attend services patterned after their favorite television shows because nothing else can hold their attention for an hour. Why the drastic difference? Are the souls of the Chinese more resil- ient than Americans’ souls? Are we being lulled to sleep by our own freedoms and successes? Surely we are made of the same stuff as believers worldwide, at least at the core. So how do we explain our apparent spiritual shallowness? What is behind so much half-hearted Christianity in the Western world?

I believe that part of the answer lies in the lack of any challenge to a life of wholeheartedness in our love and obedi- ence to Jesus. Instead of hearing the normal Christian lifestyle

defined so clearly in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) being preached, we are being given a message that is so watered down, the early believers in the Book of Acts would hardly rec- ognize it. Today, many churchgoers are in the dangerous posi- tion of thinking this weak, watered-down approach to Jesus is real Christianity. It leaves them disillusioned in their day-to-day routines and stagnant in their spiritual lives, despite their weekly attendance in a local church. They are not lacking in core be- liefs; they are lacking in vision and leadership. They are lacking in ability to see the picture of what wholeheartedness looks like when it’s authentically lived out.

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