We have only one life to live, and yet sometimes we hold back in fear or frustration. Perhaps we think that if we give something all of our effort, we will have nothing left. But I want to reassure you that you will never remain empty when you turn to God. In Phillipians 4:19, it says, “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
Sometimes we hold back because we don’t want our efforts to be wasted. AND YET… we don’t challenge the many ways we waste the limited time we’ve been given in this life. (Ask Holy Spirit to show you the areas of your life that you are wasting time and effort doing things that offer no eternal value or are areas that he’s not assigning you to in this season of your life.)
GIVE IT ALL YOU’VE GOT, and don’t waste time and effort on things that won’t matter in the end. The days and hours are passing quickly, so invest in things that matter. ✞ ✞ ✞
What happens when we give it all we’ve got and then still watch what we were laboring for disappear or wonder if it made a difference at all?
LOSS. We must process the grief we feel when it seems that we gave all of the effort and time we had to something that appears to have been all for nothing. Facing frustration, we must grapple with what we lost before we can move forward. But was our time and effort truly a loss? Or were there lessons to be learned from the process?
GAIN. God wastes nothing, and he patiently waits for us to grow and learn throughout our lives. Just as we do with our own children, he doesn’t give us more responsibilities or freedoms that we can be trusted with. He doesn’t inundate us with things, he lovingly gives us opportunities to grow in our abilities to be entrusted with more responsibilities and blessings.
With humility, our abilities increase in ways that are important to God. With increased abilities to reflect him, give him glory, and love him through the good and the bad, we shine brighter with his image reflected in us. Our resiliency through Christ shows the world his grace for his creation of humans through the love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that we display to others. Because these fruits of the Spirit are available only through Holy Spirit working in us, we can only develop them through our life lessons and experiences of “giving it all we’ve got,” gaining the skills to steward life’s losses and gains with humility and gratitude.
IT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENS TO US THAT MATTERS, IT’S HOW WE RESPOND TO IT.
CHOICES… we choose whether to hold back in fear or frustration, to believe that our life is one of lack or one of abundance. If we are strengthened in Christ and view life as a gift of his abundant love, we will choose to give it all we’ve got…. over and over again, trusting God with the result, whether it looks like a flash in the pan or a mighty bonfire.
How will our experiences impact our choices the next time? Will we hold back to avoid getting hurt or will we learn to trust God to care for us as we grieve what we thought could have been? Will we give it all we’ve got? Giving our all to someone or something and then having it fall apart in the end is painful, but to hold back from living fully is really not living at all!
READ THAT AGAIN… to hold back from living fully is really not living at all!
Maybe you’re afraid that even if you give all that you have to follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that you could stand to lose everything. But if you can look back to the blessings that you’ve received from the other times that you gave all that you had, even though they may have ended poorly, my prayer is that you will see the immeasurable things that you have gained. God promises that all we gain through him is much greater than all that is lost when we set our hopes on him.
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” – Matthew 16:25
Take heart, because although we may fall, WE WILL RISE. Though we sometimes sit in darkness, THE LORD WILL BE OUR LIGHT. (See Micah 7:8)
Don’t hold back in this life. Give God all you’ve got and watch him show his glory through your existence to a fallen world who needs the hope that only his Kingdom can offer. WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD? Show them Jesus through you every moment.
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” – Micah 6:8
(Originally posted on Facebook on May 9, 2026)