He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself.”   Matthew 22:37-39 CSB

When I mess up, I wonder why God even gave us free will? Why didn’t he just make us all little robots programmed to not sin? Why did he let us be born with a sinful nature? Maybe it’s because He wants us to want Him.

An American rock band, Cheap Trick, released a song entitled, I Want You To Want Me in 1977. The lyrics say, “I want you to want me, I need you to need me.”

Would you want to be in a relationship with someone who was only in that relationship because they were forced to be there? Would you want someone to be in a relationship with you only for what they could get out of it? Not me. I want someone to be in relationship with me because they love me wholeheartedly and because they enjoy my company, not because they are programmed to be with me.

In our Scripture passage, the Pharisees are trying to trip Jesus up by asking what is the greatest commandment? He tells us to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. But we are given the choice to do this. This is certainly what He wants us to do, but He doesn’t force us to do it. Secondly, He tells us to love others as we love ourselves. Our pastor says it like this, “Put Jesus first, others second, and yourself last and you will have joy.” It’s easy to remember that the acronym for joy is Jesus first, others second, and yourself last.

I have certainly found this to be true. I have tried it both ways. I have lived the selfish life where I claimed to be a Christian, but I put myself first, others second and Jesus last. I can tell you that this never worked out very well. Oh, for a while, I thought it was going well, but it never ended well.

Praise God, He allowed me to live long enough to come to my senses. He let me mess things up enough to understand that I need Him in my life. I need for Him to have first place. He controls the entire universe. Everything belongs to Him. He certainly doesn’t need anything from me. But, He wants me to want Him more than anything else in this universe. He wants me to understand just how desperately I need Him.

I was taught this as a child and for many years, I understood it. But, I didn’t necessarily get wiser as I got older. I began to foolishly think that I could handle things on my own and I didn’t really need His help, but boy was I wrong. Through a series of bad decisions, God helped me to see that I needed Him. Just like the hymn says, “Every hour I need Thee.”

I need Jesus in my life every hour of every day. I have come to depend on Him not because He programmed me to be that way. As a matter of fact, He made us to have free will. He made us to be independent thinkers which is sometimes the worst possible thing we could do.

Psalm 16:5 says, “LORD, you are my portion and my cup of blessing; you hold my future.” None of us know what the future holds, but once we get a good understanding of who holds the future, it just doesn’t make good sense not to surrender our lives to Him.

I surrendered my life to Christ and later re-dedicated my life to Christ because I wanted Him to take full control. I wanted to do my very best to bring Him glory and honor and praise in all that I do. I still fail at times because I am only human, but praise God, He remains faithful. 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Those grudges I held were not worth it. Those so-called good times I thought I was having were not worth it. Nothing in my life was worth displeasing God.

Now that I have surrendered my life to Him, we have a good reciprocal relationship. I surrendered my life to Him and do my best to give Him glory and honor and praise and He gives me peace and joy. I know I got the best end of this deal. He took a miserable sinner and gave me forgiveness, righteousness and eternal life. He wants to do the same for you. Are you willing to let Him do it? Surrender to God today, submit to His will in your life. You will be so glad you did.

Have a great day!