He wants His Best for me

 

 

Five of us played a game last night called “Pick Your Poison” in which we were required to decide the worst of two evils. Some were silly, like having your nose upside down, but others demanded more thought, like waking up every day without knowing who you are.

As we played, I remembered God’s glorious promises concerning my WELL-BEING and how His definition of what is good is not the same as most people would define it. That thought helped me with choices in that game as I asked myself which ‘poison’ God could use to make me more like Jesus. After all, that is His goal for me.

Romans 8:28–29. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

That is the greatest well-being I know and not limited to NT teaching. God has always wanted the best for His people. Several verses in Deuteronomy say it: “Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you . . . . “And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always . . . .” and “What does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?”

The psalmists said it too: “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land” and “For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.”

Jeremiah 29 says: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes . . . .”

As for the NT, Jesus did say in Matthew 10:34–35, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

However, this is a clue to the difference between His definition of well-being and ours. It comes out more in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” and John 16:33: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Here Jesus says that the opposite of well-being or security is not affliction and other external problems but being troubled and anxious when affliction comes. His idea of well-being is letting His peace rule my heart (Colossians 3:15) and being thankful, as in . . .

Philippians 4:7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This well-being is not identical to external affairs. They can be terrible, but in them, if I learn the lesson of James 1:2–4, I will experience a well-being that the world knows nothing about:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. In that crazy game we played, if the choice was not obvious, I asked God for wisdom (see James 1:5) so I could pick the ‘poison’ He could use for my well-being, something that sounded awful but would develop Christlikeness in me. This made the game more meaningful, and I’ve been thinking about it in every situation since!