Jamin Bradley

“All of you and none of me, Lord.” You’ve heard it preached at church. You’ve sung it in worship songs. You’ve made it your prayer. But it’s not the Bible’s message for you.

You are not some kind of pointless being that God wishes to lock away so he can use your body to impact the world. He does not want to strip you of your identity as a person—he made you and saw that you were good! Your personhood is a part of his plan and purpose. You might want more of God, but he doesn’t want less of you.

You might want more of God, but he doesn’t want less of you.

What God is looking for is a Holy Spirit-filled, Jesus-centric version of you. In the resurrection, Christians will act so much like Jesus that it will be hard to distinguish the difference between us and him. Sure, that may mean that some old habits and interests fade if they’re not aligned with Christ, but it doesn’t mean that we become faceless Christian zombies. We simply let God redeem and metamorphose all the things that make up our personhood.

Whoever told you that you were an accident was wrong. God lovingly designed you with purposeful intention and hopes to partner with you for your good, the good of this world, and his good. You can offer him a specific impact and fame that no one else can because there’s only one you—and that’s how he prefers it.

“All of you redeeming all of me, Lord.”