Devotionals

Call To Commitment

by Cynthia Bowen
08/08/17
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I  was sitting in the morning sun Bible open but eyes closed, when I heard Him.  I would like to tell you that the heavens opened and the sound I heard was many waters and rolls of thunder, but it was that same quiet but persistent voice the Lord always uses when He speaks to me.  It rose from deep inside me and pulled me into conversation with my Savior that morning.  I have learned to lean into that moment because it is then that the Lord reveals His heart to me.

He said, “Tell My people that the call of heaven in this time is for whole-hearted commitment and undivided loyalty.I call to a generation of worshippers--I do not mean an age group, My beloved, but all those on earth at this time.  Remember that David as an old king in a bed trying to stay warm was as valuable to Me as he was as a young man singing in a cave.  I call to young and to old to come after Me with abandon.”

In the church, we tend to get excited over keywords that signal some big blessing. We like to hear a prophetic word about financial increase and breakthroughs.  We want someone to tell us that God is about to launch us into exciting new adventures and propel us to some arbitrary standard of success. We tend to look for an instant spirituality that we can get just for showing up to a conference or reading a daily ministry blog, but the word that the Lord spoke to me that morning was very different.

The words sounded easy and beautiful, but the reality of what He said that day has become a challenge to the casualness of my relationship with Him. It has made me shake off the dust of complacency to press into the Word and prayer.   Whole-hearted commitment leaves little opportunity to gratify the appetites of my  flesh.  Undivided loyalty is a narrower road than I have walked.  Sometimes abandon doesn’t always make good old common sense, but it does get the attention of heaven.  

I would like to tell you that I have all that together and my list is checked off, but I am still chewing and pondering what it means to live with a fully consumed heart.  I do know that it will profoundly affect the choices in front of me and take precedence over my own plans.  And I also know that is what my God desires.  

So that is my decision and my prayer tonight: Lord, I want my heart to be truly yours in all my ways.  Change me.  Whatever whole-hearted commitment looks like, I want to be that.  Whatever separates me from You, remove it.  I want to live a life poured out on You.