I was that kid who had absolutely no hesitation when someone suggested doing a trust fall. I mean, I definitely couldn't catch anyone but I would trust anyone in the room to catch me and half of the time not even tell them before I started falling. Yet, when it comes to God I seem to want to double and triple check that He is strong enough to catch me when I fall.
It's a scary thought though, giving the Creator of the universe everything you have and living with reckless abandon while knowing you are a sinful human who will stumble and fall. In Matthew 5:48 Jesus announces, "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." That's totally doable, right? No, we know we will continue to miss the mark. It is so much easier to give Him a safe amount of our hearts and our energy, to where we aren't completely invested when we see ourselves fail; but where will that actually get us?
We are children of God! We live in the presence of the Almighty, we are free from the bondage of our sins, we know that no matter what happens here-- we will make our home in heaven. We have the Author of wisdom to turn to for guidance, and the Holy Spirit living in us! How can we bear to settle for anything less than extraordinary in our relationship with God? How can we play it safe and let life slide right past us?
So what happens when we give it everything we have and fall short? 2 Corinthians 5:21 answers that very clearly by telling us that, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Our mistakes are not game ending. When we give Him everything, we give Him what He deserves. He can use that to impact those around us and change our own lives. When we fail, He has already taken care of that through Jesus. He does not see our failure as the end of the story, and neither should we.
1 John 3:3 says "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." What if we really, truly believed that? We have been made pure because of Jesus! When we fail again today and tomorrow, we get to thank God for His grace and get back up give Him everything again. We will still be pure.
We do not need to "play it safe". God has already paid the price for our complete freedom. The only thing standing in our way of living completely free in Him without fear of failure is our hesitancy to wholeheartedly believe in the power of His grace. When we give Him everything we have, He can use that in ways we can't imagine. Don't hold back. Fall for Him, for His word, for His commands, and for His promises. Lose yourself in obedience to Him and trust that He is big enough to catch you.
