—by Lois Lang
Deuteronomy 6:4-5...Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
In a recent Bible class, we were studying the three “omnis” of God: His omniscience (there is nothing He does not know), His omnipotence (His power is unlimited), and His omnipresence (He is everywhere). In our discussion, the word “all” came up a lot, especially as we considered the fact that this life is not about us, but it is all about Him. The word “all” appeared in nearly every Scripture we read, and every concept we examined. It impressed me enough to jot it into the margin of our notes, to think a little more about after class.
I thought I’d impress you by counting the number of times “all” was used in the Bible. That was easy--all I had to do was look it up in my Strong’s Concordance and count. Guess how many times it appears in the Word? I’ll let you do the math. I gave up trying to count when I saw how many pages of “all” listings there were. They started in the middle of page 33, and ended in the first column of page 49. There are three columns per page (teeny tiny print!) and 117 entries in each column. It is one of the most-used words in the entire Bible!
Our God is an “all-or-nothing” God. He wants us to believe it all. We cannot pick and choose what we want to believe, and what we’d prefer to ignore. He wants all of each of us--not just the parts of us that we aren’t afraid to show Him. And He wants all to be saved, which is why He is so patiently waiting for all to come to Him. He is the Way and the Truth and the Life; He is El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient One; He is our Tower of Deliverance; He is Abba Father; He is our Portion Forever; He is the Potter; He is our Creator; He is our Fortress and Refuge; He is our Majestic One; He is the God that heals us; He is the First and the Last; He is the “I Am”! God is all we’ll ever need.
Father of All, we love you with all our heart, soul, and strength. Thank You for all You have provided for us--salvation, forgiveness, wisdom, healing, joy, peace, love. Please help us to give You our all, not just a little here and there. Our all may not seem like much, but we know that it’s exactly what You want. We offer our all in the Name of Jesus, Lord of All. Amen.