Her post is really going to bless you so, grab a seat and your favorite cup of tea, coffee, or soft drink and enjoy.
How to Experience God’s Best for This Life
How to experience God’s best in this life. So, why this life and not the next? Heaven is God’s best for each of us. So, we don’t need His best then. Yet, here on earth we want to experience God’s best for our lives in all areas: spirit, soul, body, relationships, finances, and professionally.
So many times we wander through life desiring God’s best. It seems that the desires we have grow more and more each moment, day, week, year that we are alive. Often we look at other people’s lives and wonder what they may be doing differently that perhaps we’re not doing to experience this “best” we feel we deserve to have.
The issues is not whether or nor we deserve God’s best. As His Children should not only desire His best, but we should experience it every day that we are alive.
“What man among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them—this is the Law and the Prophets.” -Matthew 7:9-12
Three ways to experience God’s best in this life: seek, surrender, and serve.
You must seek God, surrender to His will, and serve His people.
• Seek
Seek - search for something; strive for something; ask for something; head for or go towards something; attempt something.
Notice, if you will, that all the definitions for seek are moving words… search for, strive for, ask for, head for, go towards, attempt. What are you moving towards?
What are you attempting to do to make success happen for you? In order to succeed, you must seek (search for, strive for, ask for, head for, go towards) God’s direction for your life.
“But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” - Deuteronomy 4:29, NKJV
The responsibility is on YOU! You must seek God for yourself. Intercession is a wonderful, beautiful and needed tool in the Body of Christ. But there are some things you have to go to God for yourself about. YOU must seek Him!
Questions: Do you want to be blessed? Would you agree that to be blessed is to be successful?
“Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart!”
-Psalm 119:2, NKJV
You can’t seek God and His direction for your life unless your whole heart and soul is in it. If your heart is not in it, you will not commit to it.
Think about relationships. If both parties involved in a relationship (of any kind - business, marriage, etc.) are not committed, then that relationship will not last. It’s the same way with seeking God, if your heart is not fully committed to seeking Him and abiding in Him, you will not succeed in anything you set your mind to.
Be fully committed! I remember being in a one sided, long distance relationship with a gentleman once. In that relationship, it seemed that I was the person who was always committed to calling, visiting, and just working to make the relationship work.
As we were talking one day, he realized that he had pretty much neglected the relationship and began to apologize. After he shared his feelings, I told him, “People commit and make time for what’s important to them.” And in that truth, he made changes and became more committed.
Question: How committed are you to seeking and living God’s purpose for your life?
In 1 Chronicles 28:9, David told him son Solomon, “…know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you…”
“Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.”
- Ezra 8:21, NKJV
“And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, LORD, have not
forsaken those who seek You.” - Psalm 9:10, NKJV
“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” - Psalm 63:1, NKJV
“With my soul I have desired You in the night, yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” - Isaiah 26:9, NKJV
Here is a great promise from God…
“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.” - Proverbs 8:17, NKJV
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
- Jeremiah 29:13
“For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: ‘Seek Me and live;’” Amos 5:4, NKJV
God does not want you to seek Him for Him; He wants you to seek Him for YOU! So you can prosper and live the abundant life. (John 10:10)
“...but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.” -Psalm 34:10, NKJV
• Surrender
Surrender - give up or agree to the power or possession of another; relinquish possession or control over.
Before we begin to talk about surrender, I need to ask you, “Is Jesus the LORD of your life?” If He’s not your Lord then it will be difficult for you to surrender.
Lord - a person who has general authority over others. Master, commander, captain, chief, ruler, dictator, leader, director, king, head.
How do you make Jesus the LORD of your life? Here are three way to do that...
1. Loving the LORD - Luke 10:27, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind."
2. Obey the LORD - Hebrews 5:9, "… He became the source of salvation to all who obey Him."
“Surrendered people obey God’s word, even if it doesn’t make sense.” -Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life
Surrendered people are people of faith, and it takes faith to obey God. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” -Hebrews 11:6
3. Trust the LORD - Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight."
In order to fully surrender, you must lose your life in Christ and Christ alone.
"He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.-Matthew 10:39:”
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" -Matthew 16:24-26
How do you lose your life? You lose it by relinquishing control of your life to Jesus Christ. In other words you must give Him control over spirit, mind, will, emotions, body, relationships, jobs, money, children, spouses... everything! You do that by simply praying a prayer of surrender.
Just pray...
Jesus, thank you for being my Savior and saving me from sin. Today, seek You as my LORD. Today, I relinquish control of my life to You and I ask You to be my LORD. Help me to lose my life in You today and always. Amen.
The great part about praying this prayer is that you did not lose your life... instead you’ve just found it! From this day forward, consider Jesus in all that you do. Whenever you make a decision, consult Him. Whenever life seems hard, consult Him. Whenever you’re stuck at a crossroad in life, follow wherever He leads you. When you do this, you’ll begin to experience a new dimension of Him and this life that you’ve not known before.
• Serve
Serve - work for, help, aid, attend, assist, oblige. Also supply, dish up, serve up, hand out, hand round, give out, dole out, provide, distribute.
You are to serve God and serve His people. In order words you are to “work for, help, aid, attend to, assist and oblige” God by “supplying, serving up, giving out” whatever He tells you to His people.
Did you know that God in all of His sovereignty has chosen to operate in the earth through man/people? Yes, that’s right! We are His body in the earth – His heart, His hands, He feet, His arms, etc. Therefore, it’s up to us to serve God and to also serve His people.
“Worship the LORD your God, fear him, obey his commands, listen to what he says, serve him, and be loyal to him.” -Deuteronomy 13:4
“If you faithfully obey the commands that I'm giving you today, love the LORD your God, and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, I will send rain on your land at the right time, both in the fall and in the spring. Then you will gather your own grain, new wine, and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your animals, and you will be able to eat all you want.” -Deuteronomy 11:13-15
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like God’s best to me!
By Deaquelynn Williams
http://TheQuelynnClassroom.com
http://mPOWERd4LIFE.org
Thank you Ms. Deaquelynn for your faithfulness and taking time out of your busy schedule to be our guest blogger on today. I look forward to having you back again. God Bless You!
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