Hosanna Restoration Church

As you read the record of the Kings in the Old Testament, you see over and over again that some of them did pretty well, but they did not destroy the shrines of the pagan gods. As I was reading this I noted in my Bible that they just did not go all the way. This in turn brought about much conversation and reflection with the Lord.

I pray this illustration will not offend anyone, but when I was a youngster there was a lot of conversation about going all the way. It was a term of that day, and may well be yet today. The thing was that if one really loved someone then going all the way was the confirmation of that undying love. That is subject for another time, but for now we will focus on going all the way into the will of God.

We recently talked about appropriate worship, which I know stretches people sometimes. We have been so programmed to think of faith and worship of God as something private that we immediately go into a defensive mode when someone mentions expressing ourselves in worship.

The truth is that worship is a life style and that we can worship God in many ways. However we often hold back mostly because we do not know just how much our worship pleases God. In this scripture it says that Amaziah did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, but He did not do as well as David because he followed his father’s example instead. Most of the reason that we hold back is because we are following some other example than the one that God revealed in His word.

The question today is, “in what area of our lives have we yet to go all the way with God?” We all have those areas and the sooner we acknowledge them, the sooner we can repent and move into deeper places with God. Did I say repent? Yes if we hold anything back from God it is a sin. It is like leaving shrines of pagan worship standing. To this some respond by saying that if they do not know about that then they are not accountable. I guess that is true, but what is it costing us in our relationship with God.

Some of us have held back where love is concerned. We have not gone all the way with God in loving according to His example. Or we may not allow Him to take us into the Joy of Lord, instead we hold on to our misery and hurt. We have not gone all the way into the peace of God that passes understanding, or we have areas where we hold out on being long suffering. Yes we all have areas where we need to go all the way. So lets do it! Lets allow God to search our hearts and reveal to us where we are holding out.