All or Nothing

Sometimes I really feel like in this life it's either all or nothing...either you get no sun because you used sunscreen, or you get burned because you didn't. You get a really good night's sleep or you don't sleep at all. You're super busy or super bored...now this may seem like an exaggeration, and I guess to an extent it is, but sometimes it just feels like that's the pattern. I was lying in bed last night trying to sleep (it was one of those no sleep nights for me) and I started thinking about this pattern. I heard a quote once that said something along the lines of this: "You can't give God partial Lordship over your life. Either He's Lord of everything, or He isn't Lord of anything." When I read that, it really struck a nerve with me because no matter how much I try to deny that fact or try to keep certian areas of my life to myself without surrendering them to God, the truth still stands. If I am not readily willing and able to give over every aspect of my life to Him without holding back, no matter what it means I have to change or give up, then I am not where God wants me to be. In order for him to use me, I have to be in a place of complete surrender, because otherwise I run the risk of taking credit for the things that He does through me. If there are things in my life that I can't bear to let go of or give up for the sake of my Lord, what kind of disciple am I? There should be nothing that is  more valuable to me than a relationship with Him, and a life that is pleasing to Him. And, as with many other things in life, our relationship with God has to be all or nothing. The word lordship actually means authority. If I obey part of God's words but not all of them, it's still considered disobedience. Partial lordship really isn't lordship at all. And God will never take lordship over our lives by force--he wants us to hand it over to him freely and without holding anything back.