Why Dedicate Ourselves to God?
WHAT does it mean to dedicate oneself to God? Are those who do so to be considered impractical or foolish? And what about those who hesitate; are they wise? Yes, why dedicate ourselves to Jehovah God?
To dedicate means “to devote exclusively to the service or worship of a divine being, or to sacred uses. To set apart formally or seriously to a definite use, end, or service.” (Webster) In fact, it might be said that everybody is dedicated; either to God, to himself, to another person or to some cause. Those now dedicated to God once were not.
Those who today dedicate themselves to Jehovah God follow the example set by the wisest and noblest man that ever trod this earth, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. At God’s appointed time for him Jesus dedicated himself to do his Father’s will. At that time he said: “Look! I am come to do your will.” Why did Jesus dedicate himself? Because “in the roll of the book” it was written that he would and he was determined “to carry out all that is righteous.”—Heb. 10:9, 7; Matt. 3:15.
Why was it God’s will for Jesus to dedicate himself? Why is it His will for anyone to dedicate himself? First of all, because it is the course of honesty, justice and righteousness. Jehovah God, being the Supreme Sovereign, can rightly command: “I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion.” Having created us, given us life, he owns us as well as the earth on which we live, and so we are obligated to serve his purposes for us.—Ex. 20:5.
God, being supreme and almighty, could easily coerce all his intelligent creatures and force them to serve him. But he glories in the fact that he can give his creatures freedom to choose to co-operate with him and his purposes or not, accepting the consequences of their choice, knowing that many will choose wisely. Of course, it being his purpose to have an orderly, harmonious, productive and loving universe, he cannot indefinitely tolerate those who oppose his purposes. Justice, as well as the very fitness of things, therefore requires that we dedicate ourselves to God, that we give him the exclusive devotion due him as our Sovereign and Creator.
WAY OF WISDOM
Secondly, dedication is the course of wisdom, as regards both the present and the future life: “Godly devotion is beneficial for all things, as it holds promise of the life now and that which is to come.” (1 Tim. 4:8) Those who would go through life without dedicating themselves to God can be likened to the purchaser of a new automobile who objects to any instructions as to how best to operate the car as being an unwarranted restriction of his rights as owner. Or they may be likened to the automobile owner who insists on violating all traffic regulations, on the basis of his living in a free country and his auto being his property. Yes, all such would foolishly ignore the instruction Book of their Maker and his “traffic laws” for living. And yet that is the very course that more than 99.9 percent of earth’s population take and it accounts for the fact that the earth is filled with confusion, misery and wickedness. Those who are wise will avoid all that at the present time by dedicating themselves to God.—Jer. 8:9, AS.
Further, nothing we have is more precious to us than life, and especially life in happiness. Dedication is therefore the course of wisdom, for “the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life.” And as Moses told the Israelites, we choose life by loving Jehovah our “God, by listening to his voice and by sticking to him,” for he is our life and the length of our days.—Rom. 6:23; Deut. 30:19, 20.
Nor may we vacillate or delay. We are living in the days comparable to those in which Noah lived and time is running out! If we procrastinate we may not survive the foretold cataclysmic end of this old world at Armageddon. If we are wise we will urgently flee from this wicked old system of things, which we do when we dedicate ourselves to do God’s will.—Matt. 24:15-21, 37-39; Rev. 18:4.
And then love for God will also prompt us to dedicate ourselves to him. His Word tells us that he is love. Love prompted him to create us in the first place. Love also caused him to spare the human race when it deserved destruction because of its rebellion; and it was love that caused God to give his Son as a sacrifice to take away the sin of the world.—John 1:29; 3:16; 1 John 4:8.
Surely, since God expressed so much love for us, we should respond with gratitude and appreciation. That is why he commands that we love him with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. In fact, since everything else already belongs to God, all we can give to him as an expression of love and appreciation is our love, our hearts. If we love him we will dedicate ourselves to him, becoming his willing slaves. As we read: “This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments.”—1 John 5:3.
Besides, ever since the rebellion in Eden Satan has challenged Jehovah God to put men upon the earth that will prove faithful to him under test. (See Job, chapters 1 and 2.) By dedicating ourselves to God we are taking his side of that issue, vindicating him as worthy of worship and able to elicit unselfish service from his creatures. Thereby we are heeding his request: “Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.” So we see that justice, wisdom and love combine to urge dedication upon us; a threefold cord that should pull us to Jehovah God and his service.—Prov. 27:11.
DEDICATION REQUIREMENTS
Dedication, to be intelligently and honestly made, requires advance preparation. We must have a “right and good heart,” and be ‘conscious of our spiritual needs.’ Next we must gain a knowledge of God’s Word and exercise faith in Jehovah God, in his Word and in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. As we progress in knowledge and understanding we will grow in faith and love to the point where we will want to dedicate ourselves to God.—Luke 8:15; Matt. 5:3.
God’s Word also counsels us to count the cost. Not so as to determine whether we should dedicate ourselves or not—there can be but one answer to that question—but so as to appreciate what is involved, so that we will be prepared to “say goodbye to all [our] belongings,” if need be. And in making the decision to dedicate ourselves to God we may not be influenced by pressure of friends, emotionalism, fear of man, or any other outside factors.—Luke 14:25-33.
Once having dedicated ourselves to God, we must carry out that dedication. “Better is it that you vow not than that you vow and do not pay.” The very first requirement is that we go on record before witnesses as having made a dedication by being baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.” And ever after we must keep on “seeking first the kingdom” of God.—Eccl. 5:5; Matt. 28:19, 20; 6:33.
We must continue to feed on God’s Word, to associate with his people and endeavor to bring forth the fruitage of the spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.” We must also keep separate from this old world’s politics, commercialism and hypocritical religions, knowing that whoever “wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” And we must actively share in preaching “this good news of the kingdom” to the extent of our opportunities and abilities.—Gal. 5:22, 23; Jas. 4:4; Matt. 24:14.