Today we welcome a new day of life and a new month of life. The ultimate gift has arrived at your front door. Summertime is here, welcome to June! Who gave you this gift and what will your response be?
This day didn’t just show up by accident. You were chosen for this gift. Your creator decided you should receive this new month so here it is with a big bow on it this morning as the sun came up. How will you say thank you?
I want you to imagine you bought me a pair of socks. I received the socks in the mail and to show my appreciation I sent you a thank you letter. Now would you rather receive a thank you letter that said “Hey, I love the socks, thanks” …. or …. would you rather receive a letter that said “Those socks are absolutely perfect, I love them in every way. I’m going to wear those socks for my big run this week. Next week I’m going to wear them on a weekend trip to go hiking in the mountains. They are my favorite pair of socks ever and I’m going to use them and enjoy them over and over again. I’ll think of you every time. Thank you so much for these amazing socks.”
Now of course you would rather receive the second thank you letter because you know all the ways I’m going to use and enjoy the gift you have given me. And I bet that would make you want to buy me more socks, right? RIGHT!
So with this in mind, think about the gift of this new month of life God has just given you. Do you want to send up a little “hey thanks God, I really like June”, or do you want to give him a detailed list of how you plan to use this month and enjoy it to the fullest? You know the answer here. You know what’s best. And this my friends is what we here in BIG Life call MONTHLY GOALS. Your list of goals for June 2018 are the ultimate thank you letter to the giver of this month of life. So you write that letter. Tell God all the ways you’re going to enjoy this gift and use this gift to live fully and get better, and I just bet that will make God look at you and say, “goodness gracious, I can’t wait to give that girl another gift! I want to give her so many more days and months!”
It’s goal writing day. What do you want to do with this month of life? How do you want to spend your days? What do you want to achieve and accomplish? How do you want to grow and get better? It’s not a to-do list, it’s the ultimate thank you letter to God.
Today in BIG Life Mentoring, we’re beginning our new summer series called “All-In”. Our intention is to create a summer of big memories and no regrets. This morning’s devotional is a taste of the teachings I’ll be sharing in this series. If you listen to this devotional and you think to yourself “self, you need more of this in your life”, then perhaps now is the time for you to dive-in to our online mentoring group and let me be your mentor. I’ll give you details at the end of today’s episode on how you can join us.
“Dive All In”
We will never know the awesome power of God until we go all-in. We will never know what was truly possible in our lives as long as we’re tip-toeing in the waters. We will never, ever reach our full God-given potential standing on the shore second guessing everything. God is calling YOU, yes you, to an all-in life. He’s calling you to dive. No more splish-splashing around in this life you have been given. It’s time to dive all-in to the life you were created for, BIG TIME!
Steven Curtis Chapman has an older song called Dive. It says:
I’m diving in, I’m going deep, in over my head I want to be
Caught in the rush, tossed in the flow, in over my head I want to go
The river’s deep, the river’s wide, the river’s water is alive
So sink or swim, I’m diving in
Could everything you’ve gone through been for the purpose of bringing you right here to the edge where you’re faced with a decision to either stand there or dive in? This is where life has brought you. To the edge. Now you can stand here at the edge for all the rest of your days, peering over and wondering. Wondering what it would look like to be caught in the rush of God’s love, to be tossed in the flow of his power, to be in over your head in his grace, where your days are deep and wide and truly alive. Do you want to wonder, or do you want to experience?
Are you ready to experience what it’s like to be fully alive? Yes? Then it’s time to dive all-in!
In John 10:10 Jesus says “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Jesus came for you so that you could have life to the full. An abundant life. A life overflowing. And what should your response be? Ahhhh, “I’ll take just a little thank you” or “maybe later Jesus”? That’s absurd! No! Jesus says girl I came so that you could have this big, beautiful, abundant overflowing life and our response MUST be, “AWESOME, I’M ALL IN!”
God I want it all. I want every good thing you have available to me. I want every beautiful experience you’re offering. I want every day of life. I want every sunrise. I want every adventure. I want it all. And God says, “awesome, I want your all too.”
Matthew 22: 37 says “You shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind.” Not a little bit. Not just a piece of you. All of you. This is what God wants and this is how he has been using every single good thing and every single bad thing in your life to bring you to this place of full surrender where you will go all-in with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. Where you decide to hold nothing back.
Will you sell out for God? Will you believe with every ounce of you that he is for you and not against you? Will you believe without wavering that no weapon formed against you shall prosper so you have no reason to fear? Will you trust fully that God’s plans for you are good and you can dive in knowing if you can’t already swim, he will teach you to swim. You will not sink.
How many once in a life-time opportunities has God worked up for you and you missed it because you were too darn worried about how you looked in a swimsuit. Dang it woman, if you don’t like the way you look in a swimsuit either do something about it or get over it. How many priceless moments has God tried to gift you and you missed out because you chose to sit it out? When I was a little girl there was a running joke in our family that my grandparents would never show up for anything because there was always a cow dying or a cow about to give birth, a cow that needed to be milked or a cow that needed to be moved. And so my grandparents were never in my life because of a dang cow.
You may not have any literal cows, but I bet somehow or another you’ve been sitting around waiting for the cows to come home. There’s always an excuse for why you can’t and so you don’t. You’ll regret that.
James 4:14 says “You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” This life is short and fleeting and it’s passing you by. There’s no time to waste. I don’t know how many more summers you will get. What if this is your last one? What if this is your last chance to take those vacation days and create memories with your family? What if this is your last chance to watch a sunrise or sunset on the beach? What if this is your last opportunity to take those photos with every single one of you because next time, not everyone will be there? I’m not saying to live in fear here, I’m saying live with this truth, life is passing you by. You only get so many chances at this thing and so many trips around the sun. You have no time to waste. You can’t afford to tip toe around in the waters of life now. You’ve gotta go all-in.
Will you make that commitment right now? Will you promise yourself that there will be no more holding back? Will you commit to taking every opportunity that comes your way and run with it? Will you say yes to life so life can say yes to you? Will you intentionally show up for every new day of life ready and willing to live it to the fullest? It starts right here. This is your chance. This morning you woke up to a new day and a new month of life. Here’s your summer 2018, will you live it all-in? This is your summer of BIG memories and no regrets.
