It’s nearly impossible to compartmentalize your life for long. Especially when it comes to being a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ. I tried for many years to keep God, my faith and my growing relationship with the Lord into the neat compartment of the occasional Sunday morning; some years of my life, I even kept it strictly to emergencies and holidays! I will tell you that at the time, it seemed to be working; but always there came a reason and a desire to move closer, to draw further in. And eventually, the closeness and proximity to Him made it impossible to stay away for long at all! And in increasing my time with Him, in drawing closer in relationship to Him and in giving more of my life to Him, I was unable to separate areas of distinction in my life from Him! My life with the Lord became open-concept living . . no “rooms” I struggle in vain to keep separated by closed or locked doors!

You cannot ask the Lord to be Lord of your spirit and soul, but then deny Him access to your other parts! And you cannot hold the door closed on Him when it comes to relationships and social activities, all while asking Him to watch over you and the rest of your life, the rest of the time. The surest manner of being born again, of having a relationship with the Lord, is to go all out! You must relegate yourself subordinate to Him in every way possible to give Him the rightful place as Lord and Savior over all your life and being. And that is sacrifice, that is complete and total surrender; and that is certainly not easy sometimes! That is the committed will to let go of any control over any part of your life, trusting completely in the Lord. Let go, let God! In every area. In all ways. There are no compartments in which He doesn’t have clear vision, awareness or control anyway; so why persist in holding back from giving Him the wheel? If we’re keeping some areas in our lives over which we are determined to sin, to go astray and to be out of His will, then we are keeping ourselves purposefully apart from Him. And although He doesn’t require our works to love us, to have died for us or to offer us salvation, we can show our love for Him through our obedience and surrender. Hopefully, as we draw nearer to Him, our love and obedience is something freely-given to Him because it seems a joyous choice to make anew each day!

What we do after we’ve been born anew in Him is how we honor Him, give Him glory and love Him faithfully in return; it’s also how we fulfill His purposes for us. It is not possible to neatly compartmentalize our lives while so deeply committed and devoted to serving Him! Seek to grow nearer to Him, though it not be easy, it is the most rewarding aspect of faith to know the Lord better! I can only attest that is exactly what has happened to me; through my drawing in towards the Lord, I have felt Him drawing me in. My trust in Him has grown and my peace has increased; I know absolutely that I am loved!