“I want it all,” came a voice from the adjacent table. I couldn’t help myself; I had to turn and look. We were on vacation in Europe, and the hotel served a breakfast buffet. When the server asked him if she could get him anything, he responded with the “I want it all” comment. That’s the deal with a buffet — you can have anything you’d like.
Having it “all” might stretch more than a waistline. A reporter asked Standard Oil Company founder John D. Rockefeller, the first U.S. billionaire and once the richest man on Earth, “How much money is enough?” To which he responded, “Just a little bit more.”
People come from around the world seeking to enjoy the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness our Declaration of Independence promises to American citizens. In our current culture, the American Dream has become an accumulation of “things.” As a young Lieutenant during my first Infantry Battalion assignment, one of our senior officers had a bumper sticker on his red Corvette convertible that read, “He Who Has The Most Toys Wins!” I learned that a military career doesn’t lend itself to having the most toys, but the seed was planted.
Even Christians can be wooed by the allure of wanting it all. The “name it and claim it” proponents tell their followers that God does indeed want you to have it all. When material rewards fail to materialize, they are told it’s either because of a lack of faith or they have not given a sufficient “seed” offering to the church.
At the risk of sounding heretical, Scripture does indeed offer a promise of “having it all.” The Apostle Peter wrote, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.” (2 Peter 1:3, ESV) How exactly, you might ask, have we been “granted all things”? The Apostle Paul provided the answer in his epistle to the Philippian church when he wrote, “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)
The Greek word translated “will” is thelo, which Vine’s Dictionary defines as “to will, to wish, implying volition” and is frequently translated as “desire” in the King James Version. As a Christian, God has implanted within us a “desire” to do His “good pleasure,” which is why I am discontent when I willfully live my life as I please. The Greek word translated “work” and “works” is energeo and is defined by Vine’s as “to work in” as well as “supernatural power.” Our English word “energy” is derived from this word.
God has infused in our souls the desire and power to serve Him. That tells me I have “all things that pertain to life and godliness.” Given that we “have it all,” the Apostle Paul would tell us we are “without an excuse” (see Romans 1:20).
Pastor and author A. W. Tozer sums up the “most toys” mindset in The Pursuit of God:
Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival.
That, my friend, is the “all things” I desire above all.
What say ye, Man of Valor?
Semper Fidelis!
