My final resolution is Commitment to Jesus Completely. Pastor Rob Koke taught on three forms of commitment and I have to say that I want when God searches my heart for Him to find that my commitments to him are core and not private.
For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son. God gave it all. The very least I can do is give Jesus everything. Everything means all of it. It means I have to make a commitment that reaches beyond my selfish ambition.
There are three forms of commitment according to Pastor Rob Koke.
There is the belief in God that is public commitment. Public commitment means that you say it because it sounds good. Politicians say at the end of their speeches, “God bless you and God bless America.” They say it because everyone says it and it sounds good and it’s good for business. Public commitment is what we say because it sounds good. There is no other fruit to bear witness to that belief. Only words. Merely words. Some of us come to church on Sunday because it pleases our spouse or our parents or in our mind it’s what we are supposed to do but in no other way do we show any sort of commitment to Jesus. It’s not displayed in our lives.
Then there is Private Commitment. Private commitment is what we think we believe, and we really do think we believe it until something happens to prove our commitment and we find out we didn’t really believe it after all. This is like Peter when he at the last supper with Jesus, after saying you are the Messiah, after following him for three years he says to Jesus, I’m going to the mat for you. Jesus says, “Peter, before it’s all over tonight you’ll deny me three times.” Peter is like NO WAY, NOT GONNA HAPPEN. But it happens.
Private commitment, as I understand it, is I believe my house is going to serve the Lord until another idol rises against it. A woman, raised her children in church, her husband and she were elders in the church, she grew up in the church and she goes still today. Only her children have grown up and moved away and her husband has died. She has found love again but to do things right and get married, she must give up her husband’s pension. So she says in her heart that God will understand her fornication and she and her friend move in together. After all, it’s not her fault the government is the way it is. Suddenly her testimony is tainted and everyone is shocked. Private commitment, we believe it to be right until it might cost us something. Private commitment shows a distrust of God. We need to trust him that he will work it out. Private commitment is, I don’t believe there should be pictures of half-naked bodies on the Internet, until I look at my kid’s MySpace and then I think that it’s her own private site and none of my business. It isn’t that I don’t love God. I believe Peter loved God, the woman who is shacking up loves God and the parents struggling with the kid’s MySpace page love God but it’s a love that is willing to be put aside for what we want.
Finally there is core commitment. Core commitments can be that we believe if we stand on a rooftop and jump we will get hurt because no matter how much we will it to be different, gravity takes over and we fall rather than soar. Core commitment are those things that we believe that can’t be shaken no matter how much we try. Job had core commitment. He said, I don’t know what is going on but I know God is God. Abraham had core commitment. He was going to sacrifice his son but He knew God will not forsake him. Peter had core commitment after he wept bitterly, met up with his frailty and overcame it.
Lord, help me to trust you. To be so entwined in your life so that our hearts look like one. That would bless me beyond imagination!
Pastor Susan 