Recently I attended a dinner where singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman performed. Chatting with him, I told him I had been thinking of one of his songs all week. Maybe you remember it.

We will abandon it all for the sake of the call

No other reason at all but the sake of the call

Wholly devoted to live and to die for the sake of the call

I wonder if we really believe that. I think of the hymn many of us sing in our churches:

All to Jesus I surrender

All to Him I freely give

And then the chorus:

I surrender all, I surrender all

All to Thee my blessed Savior

I surrender all

Do we? Do we surrender all?

There is a book that tells the life of Bible teacher Oswald Chambers. His material through the years became that best-selling devotion My Utmost for His Highest. The book on Chambers’ life is called Abandoned to God.

Are we? Abandoned to God?

Jesus, over and over, told would-be followers to leave all, to sell their possessions and give it to the poor before becoming His disciple. Did Jesus mean that? When Christ called those fishermen to be his disciples, the Bible tells us they just walked away from their fishing business, they left it all behind to be a follower of Jesus.

Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.

Matthew 4:19-20 NLT

I wonder what God could do in our lives, our ministries, if we could be fully abandoned to Him. Steven Curtis Chapman’s song goes on to say:

Not for the sake of a creed or a cause

Not for a dream or a promise

Simply because it is Jesus who called

And if we believe we’ll obey

Maybe we need a fresh look at Jesus…and His call on our lives.

God’s best,