Giving God your ALL

Love so Amazing

Isaac Watts was a prolific hymn writer, but of all that he ever wrote, one stands out in my memory. It is the hymn “When I survey the wondrous cross” It was about this one single hymn that John Wesley was reputed to have said, “I would give everything I have ever written to have written that one hymn.”

I have selected just three of the verses of the five originally written, but the import of those verses, the beauty and the deep, deep meaning held in them is so immense I think even I could write a book about them.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

It’s that final verse, isn’t it, that grabs you; that convicts you; that makes you reconsider the Lord God Almighty in a different light. Jesus gave His all for us. God the Father gave His all – His only Son for us. Whatever we have, however little or much we are able to give Him in return is pitiful by comparison – yet He waits with open arms to receive it from us so that he can bless it back to us. God receives our all but He never keeps it to Himself. He takes it, consecrates it, blesses it, multiplies it and gives it back to us so we can then share it with others.

His amazing, divine love is so all-encompassing that it really does demand everything we can give to Him. This all-embracing love is ours for ever. As Isaac Watts, and later john Wesley discovered, we cannot give only part of ourselves to Him and get more than part of His blessing. His whole love; His whole blessing demands our whole response and our whole life.

How much have we missed by keeping part of ourselves back from the Lord I wonder? Too much?? It’s time to give Him your all in order to receive His all in return. What peace and what blessings we miss by holding back. Brother, sister, don’t hold back any longer. He has been waiting for you to give Him your all so that He can use you in the way He has planned for you. Don’t wait a moment longer – time is too short. Do it now.

Just do it.