In Church, we often talk about making Jesus Lord and King of our lives. To accomplish this, requires our entire heart. For many of us, this is a struggle to allow Jesus into the areas of our lives we protect most. When we live in a broken world, we tend to keep the walls up high to everyone with the hope that we can avoid pain and suffering. The problem is that these walls also keep God out and prevent him from being God in our Lives.

We must come to a full understanding about the free will that God has given us. We like to exercise it, but we don’t want to be responsible for the wrong decisions we make with it. Regardless of God infinite power, He will not impose his will in our lives. He will wait until we decide that we want his help and His life.

When we respond in faith, God acts. A relationship with God entails each party being who they are in truth. When we try to be God, Lord, and King, we can’t enter a genuine relationship with God. We simply begin to “play Church” by pretending to obey God. In our hearts, we are firm in our resolve to keep God and others out. The fear of pain is so strong and our desire to avoid it is so real that we will often choose to reject God with the hope that pain can be avoided.

God, for his part, has been sending saints along to reveal him to us so that we could learn, recognize Him, and believe that he is God. Once we come to this realization, we must respond by ratifying our baptism through giving our hearts to God. In doing this, we begin the process of giving him access to every part of our lives. Does this all happen at once? No, it is a lifelong process of trust and obedience.

Our goal is to reenter the life of God and remain there for the rest of eternity. To accomplish this, we must desire God above all else, even avoiding pain. God looks right into our hearts and sees if our desire for Him is there. If it is not, then you now know the first step in growing in your relationship with Him. You must pray to God and give your heart, your life, your future, everything to him. The words don’t have to be perfect; they just have to reflect the truth of your heart’s desire!