Sharing My Life (8/10/09): God's Best?

The other night I was at Appleby’s fellowshipping with some of my fellow singles from Open Door and I overheard some of the women talking about “not settling for anything less than God’s best.” From the rest of the conversation I heard, I could tell they were talking about their love lives. It got me reflecting about what it would mean to pursue God’s best in every area of our life. I think this query actually involves two questions: What is God’s best and how are we pursuing it? From a human perspective, God’s best might mean finding the perfect spouse, job, house or whatever takes priority in our lives. Yet is that really God’s best? Israel had an idea about what God’s best for them would be. They envisioned their messiah to be a conquering hero, a second coming of David, who would over through Rome and reign as king over Israel. However, God had a different idea. Instead of a conquering hero, He sent a humble carpenter. Jesus was not interested in overthrowing the Roman empire, He was interested in overthrowing the power of sin and the kingdoms we allow it to create in our lives and world. So, God’s best for us is far different than our perception of what would be best for us.

If that’s true, what does it mean to pursue God’s best? Here to, I think we are in for a bit of a surprise. Often when I think about finding the perfect wife, I picture a beautiful woman who is passionate about her relationship with God and cares for His people as I do, yet God may have someone else in mind, or He may be calling me to a live of singleness, like Paul. Though I do hope it’s not the later ;-) God may bring someone into my life who doesn’t fit my ideal of a future wife, yet through bringing her into relationship with me and I with her, it becomes clear that we are meant to be together. If this is the case, I think pursuing God’s best begins with a humble prayer and an open heart. We pray that we will be able to recognize God’s leading in our lives and be obedient in following Him