Episode 262: I’m Talkin. . .All

I’m talking episode 262 for April 23rd, 2023.

This is Joel from the I’m Talking microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week we’re talking all.

Yes, you heard correctly.

I said the word all.

It’s a very simple word, a little three-letter word that you probably learn early in your reading development, how to read or sound out.

And you may wonder how do you do a microcast on the word all, but I don’t think you’ll be surprised as we go down this road.

So in my mind, all has two sides to it.

It can be a very inclusive word, or it can be a very exclusive word.

And I think you understand where I’m going with that.

All are involved or all are not involved.

And we often think of the word all, but we don’t really mean it.

Can something be all?

Are we all in?

Are we really all out?

Do we give our all when we’re doing some activity?

Do we always do our best to the best of our ability?

When we are doing any number of things, we can be challenged by the word all and whether or not that is a true indication of what we are doing, of who we are, of who we want to be, and what we’re trying to express.

And therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

For those of us who call on the name of Jesus Christ, and we claim him as our Savior, and God as our Father, we are Christians and we plan on spending eternity in heaven, God asks one thing of us, and that is for us to give him our all.

It doesn’t mean we will give him perfection.

It doesn’t mean we will give him exactly what we are supposed to give him, but it means we give everything we have.

We are invested fully in him as our God.

We are invested fully in Jesus as our Father, or Jesus as our Savior.

We’re invested fully in the Holy Spirit as our guide and power to live our lives to the fullest.

And God says, I want all.

I want everything.

And we as Christians do not know what that looks like.

So now I have to challenge myself that last statement of not knowing what our all looks like.

I think we do know what it looks like.

And as Christians, it’s whether we are willing to give all to God.

And so we think about what that might look like.

We know we are not the perfect spouse, whether you’re a husband or a wife.

We know we don’t give everything to be the perfect spouse in that situation.

And why is that?

It’s probably because we don’t give our all to God.

And then we know that we fail as parents sometimes, or as brothers, or as sisters.

And why is that?

It’s probably because we don’t give our all to God.

I think you’re getting the picture here.

We could talk about work and why we don’t give our all at work.

We can talk about creativity or recreation or all number of different things, vast numbers of things that we do in our lives.

And we think if we could have just given a little more, and I am challenging myself and therefore challenging my listeners to think about that in terms of what we give to God.

If we challenged ourselves daily to give all we are, all we have, all we do to serve God, then people, wives, husbands, children, brothers, sisters, mothers, dads, would all of a sudden think we are giving our all to them.

They would understand and recognize that they are getting more of us than they’re used to getting.

They’re not getting a maybe or maybe later or a brush off.

They are getting an all.

They are getting a yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no.

And our lives become all significant.

They become all full.

They become all abundant because we base what we do for others on giving our all to God.

And that is the only way that we can live sold out for God’s glory.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.