“Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.” Psalm 25:4 NKJV
I couldn’t have been more thrilled when two beautiful little girls were given permission by the “big people” in their lives – the adults – to start a little meeting with me in the hotel where we all stayed to love and worship the Lord, to pray to Him, to study His Word and learn about Him and how to follow Him, and to share our hearts and seek Him together and enjoy His sweet presence in our little gatherings. Immediately in our first two little meetings we began with my telling them plainly and clearly the Gospel message and that we must lay down this foundation in our lives of repenting and believing in Christ as Lord with a sincere commitment to follow Him – with our hearts and lives devoted to God and His Word.
Little did I know one of these sweet little girls would not only ask one of the biggest and most important questions ever, but that she would ask a question I am afraid too many “big people” – adults – have failed to ask and consider.
The “littlest” of the two girls was just seven. So little. But then came the big question.
“What does commitment mean?” she asked.
Wow. I was blown away. I have been in ministry for years and don’t recall any “big person” ever asking this question. Let alone how many have us have given thought to it? This wasn’t some little question from a little girl. This was – and is – one of the most important questions we can ever ask ourselves or another. Why?
“Do you remember we said we would meet at a certain time?” I replied. “You made a commitment to show up at that time. You showed up at that time. That is a commitment.” I essentially explained a commitment is when we agree to do something and follow through on it.
Having a forever relationship with God, now and for eternity in heaven, is not about a one-time emotional experience during which we repent of our sins and express we believe Jesus Christ is Lord and that He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and was raised from the dead. It’s for those who make a forever commitment to Christ as not just Savior but as LORD of our lives. We commit to turn to God and His ways, to have a personal relationship with Christ and to read the Bible and learn to live by it, to assemble with fellow Christ followers to worship and learn about God, and most of all to love and worship and serve the Lord forever. We make a commitment to the Lord and to live for Him.
Commitment? We give our lives to Christ. We now belong to Him. We don’t just say Christ is Lord, and we don’t just intellectually believe He is Lord, but we surrender our lives to Him. We keep our commitment to Him as our Lord. We turn away from this world’s ways and turn to Him, and we repent when we do wrong and place ourselves in His loving hands to change us and make us like Himself.
How many of us, I wonder, have “made a decision for Christ,” or have “committed our lives to Christ,” but have never asked the big question the little girl did that day?
Do you know what commitment means? What commitment to Christ means? Do your heart and life on a daily basis reflect you have made a genuine commitment to Him?