Heart Tracks - Laying Ourselves On The Line

      While browsing in a used bookstore, I came across and purchased a devotional titled "Voices Of The Faithful."  I was captured by the smaller print on the cover that said it was written by people who "Put their lives on the line for God."  Most of us may be familiar with the term "putting it or laying it on the line," but not the origin.  Google can be a valuable ally these days, and a search revealed that the term is thought to have originated in gambling, where the one making the bet, would place his money on a line on the table, risking it all to follow what he believed was his leading.  In a sense, I think that's an apt description of what it means to truly follow Christ, to truly be His.  Few of us would dispute that, but the question then arises, how many of us are truly living that?

     Many years ago, when I left my home in Pittsburgh to answer what I believed was His call on my life, I was able to fit all I owned into the car I was driving.  Material things had never meant a lot to me, so it was not hard to do.  Still, there was much risk involved.  I had never been further west than Ohio.  I didn't know anyone in Colorado, where I was going.  I had no idea how I'd support myself, what I'd do, or how I'd pay for my education.  I just went, believing in my youthful trust that He'd make a way.  Upon arriving, the first place I went was to the college campus.  It was set upon a beautiful plain directly beneath majestic Pikes Peak.  I remember when I got out of my car, the whisper of the enemy spoke into my heart the statement that "You have as much chance of thriving here as you do of seeing that mountain before you disappear."  For a moment, fear gripped my heart, but then almost immediately, the school president and his wife came out the door of the administration building, asked if they could help me with something, welcomed me to the school, encouraged me to call my contact person right away, and from that point on, God made a way.  I'd laid it all on the line, and He backed, with all His honor, glory and faithfulness, my "bet."
    A lot of years have passed, and I can no longer fit all I own in a car.  The stakes, the risks, of following Him have greatly increased.  I have to ask myself the question: Will I still, in all areas, lay it on the line for Him?  No matter the risk, no matter the cost, will I place it all there, and trust Him?  Will I trust Him if in my time of great need, no "door" before me opens, no welcoming voice speaks, and the frightening mountain before me just gets bigger and more frightening?  No longer young, will I still trust Him, no matter what, no matter where, no matter when, in everything? 
    We tend to think that our risks for Him will always end in what we consider success, "winning."  Henry Blackaby says that we must "never act as if it were God's purpose to make us successful."  I believe His purpose is that we be faithful, even if it appears there is no success.  The late British pastor and writer T. Austin-Sparks wrote that the Father seeks our faithfulness "even though that faithfulness may involve the appearance of utter failure."  I want to tell you that my flesh recoils at that.  It never wants to undergo such an appearance, such a humiliation.  What will my peers think?  What will those in authority over me think?  How will they judge me?  How will they see me?  Whether it be ministry, livelihood, marriage, family, I think this reaction is the same for all of us.  In our westernized culture, we flee from the appearance of failure, and I think, miss the rich blessings of faithfulness, and so, sharing in the fullness of His life, His ministry, and His way.  He, who by the judgements of men, would have been deemed a complete failure.

    Scripture tells us that "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God."  It is terrible....for our flesh.  Being in His hands alone means we have lost all control, direction, and self-purpose.  We are His and His alone, to do with as He will, for His purposes alone.  Our agenda's die, so that His can live in and through us.  We live lives "on the line" at all times.  Is this the life we are living now?  Can it be said in heaven that what we are living, how we are living, is a life that risks it all for Him.  Reputation, provision, position, possession?

Are we living life from the safety of the familiar, the known, or do we live as Spirit-led "pioneers" risking all to follow Him?  Risking all to be one with Him.  Laying it on the line with, and in, Christ.

 

Blessings,

Pastor O