50% can be fantastic! When it’s a coupon you have for a 50% off back-to-school sale. When you are 50% done with a difficult project and you made it this far.
But 50% can also be disappointing and limiting. When 50% of your day is waiting on hold for others to pick up the phone. When 50% of the tires on your car are flat.
Did you wake up today and think, “If I can just get 50% of Jesus in my life today, that’ll help” … or “I hope God hears 50% of my prayers today” … or “I’d sure like to follow Jesus 50% of the time today”?
But we limit Jesus. We put up walls. We pile up debris over time. We pay half attention. We get distracted. We give ourselves more intimately or intensely to other interests and when it comes to Jesus we only have leftovers at best.
Meanwhile, Jesus promises us the full life. Right now. A life overflowing with him, mathematically speaking more than 100% of him (that’s a miracle, I know, and beyond our comprehension but it’s how Jesus teaches us).
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:10-15)
Look at all the full, complete, 100% Jesus in these promises from his own lips.
Full life. Because of his full death. Full goodness. Full care. Full ownership. Full knowledge. Full intimacy.
Other interests and idols in your life are like hired hands. They are self-serving. Believe that, act on it, and replace them with more Jesus in your life and you will begin to follow him, love him, and experience him more completely.
Jesus doesn’t hold back. He offers more than 100% of himself and his forgiveness, his love, his provision, his care, his intimacy (he says that he is as intimate with you as he is with his own Father!).
Yesterday, I was talking to a friend about a dating relationship where she was more into him than he was into her. We unpacked that a bit, and it helped.
You don’t need to wonder where Jesus stands. He’s into you. All into you. Fully into you. 100% into you.
Stop limiting him, and see what he can do.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I praise you for making my salvation 100% complete, yet I pray that I may realize it more than I do. I pray for more of you in my life, and more of you in my mind throughout the day. Help me realize where I limit you, and connect in new ways with your fullness. Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: If you are at 50% of Jesus right now, or maybe 30% or 80%, what is keeping you from increasing just 10%? Pray about it. Do something about it. And know that all of Jesus is ready and willing to give you more of himself.