All or Nothing
All or nothing. That’s it. That’s what God wants from you.
Remember the story of Joseph and his brothers throwing him
in the well? (Genesis 37) They hated him (mostly because he was proud and they
were jealous), and there are many lessons to be learned from this story (God
uses all circumstances for His good, God can use someone without any talents or
skills, no matter the difficulties you face—if you keep your faith, God will
pull you through, etc.), but the one that I want to pull out is actually more about
Reuben than Joseph.
Reuben was Joseph’s oldest brother. When all of Joseph’s
other brothers wanted to kill him, Reuben talked them out of it by convincing
them that they didn’t need his blood on their hands or the guilt. He talked
them into throwing Joseph into the well, with the intention of coming back
later to retrieve Joseph on his own. (Genesis 37:21-22) At first glance, it
seems like great brotherly love- saving your brother’s life immediately, and
then wanting to come back and rescue him later. Great. Except it wasn’t. Reuben
had good intentions, so to speak. But, really, he was a coward. Being the
firstborn son of Jacob, Reuben could have commanded his brothers to listen to
him. He could have (and should have) stood up to them outright, refusing to
allow the conspiracy against Joseph. But, instead, he went around about way to
save Joseph. He agreed with his brothers to get rid of Joseph, secretly
plotting to come back and rescue him. But what was the point? His actions were useless.
They were neither for nor against Joseph.
And that’s where we’re at most of the time with God. Most of
what we do may seem to be for Him,
but typically it’s a moot point. We’re only giving it half a shot. We don’t
want to make ourselves unpopular with anyone, make any sacrifices (whether it
be financially, physically or mentally) or lose ourselves (or our status) in the process. So we go along with the
crowd, keeping our mouths closed, to keep the peace. Possibly thinking we’ll
maybe speak one-on-one to each person to state our (forgetting it’s His) case.
Maybe thinking like Reuben, and intending to come back later to rectify the
damage we caused. We’re so concerned with ourselves and our precious time and
money and reputation that, had we just done the right thing in the first place,
we wouldn’t have to go back and attempt a do-over. Think about the time and
money we’d save that way! And our reputations would be accounted for with the
only person that matters in the first place: God.
We have to be able to stand up for what we believe. (2 Thessalonians
2:15) We must be consistent in our convictions, regardless of the possible outcome.
There is no room for compromise when it comes to faith. If we don’t have our faith,
then we’re in essence saying we don’t have God. And if we don’t have God, then we
don’t have anything.
God doesn’t want our partiality, He wants our totality. All or
nothing. (Proverbs 3:6)
(And remember, it’ll never compare to all that He gave for
you.)
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