Amy Grant had a song many years ago by that title: I Have Decided. Hearing it today made me think of those of us who sit on the fence, trying to straddle good and evil, wanting to be a light to this broken world, but afraid to fully turn from the darkness. I suppose I spent a number of years in that place. It’s not a good place to be. We are called to make a decision. And to make it fully. Now we know from verse 1 of chapter 1 that the book of James is written to the twelve tribes of Israel scattered abroad. It is not written to the church, the body of Christ, but we can take spiritual application from it.

James 1:8
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

If a double minded man is unstable then, obviously, we don’t want to be that. How can we avoid it? The answer presents itself further on in James.

James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

If we submit ourselves to God, fully, then we have made a commitment. We have decided to follow God and resist the devil. If we are doing that, He will help us to get off the fence and live our lives fully for Him. We can’t perfect ourselves, we can only submit to the Spirit of God and let Him work the change in us. Our works can never save us. Works can never make us complete, perfect. Nevertheless, we should keep right on working. We should do good works out of our love for God, not out of our desire to earn our salvation.

2 Timothy 3:17
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

When I think about all the lukewarm Christians out there, trying to stay part of the world despite being called to “…come out from among them, and be ye separate…” (2 Cor 6:17), I am saddened. I hope that they will come to realize that life is so much better when you fully commit to the Lord. I’m not suggesting that everything is roses and sunshine, or that you won’t have health problems and heartaches. I’m suggesting that having a full and fulfilling relationship with Christ Jesus means more than any of the earthly things that we think can make us happy. So, submitting really is the only option for me. It isn’t always easy, and sometimes I fail, but it’s worth the effort to give my little world up to Him and see what He does with it.

What are your thoughts on the matter? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

(All verse references are taken from the Authorized Version of the Bible, commonly referred to as the King James Version.)

[bctt tweet=”Elle E. Kay talks about deciding to get off the fence and submit fully to Christ. #devotional #KJV” username=”ElleEKay7″]