The Best Things in Life…

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Til your good gets better and your better is best.” Living life as we do, we always have the freedom of will to pursue life at the level from which we want to live it. Often people think that the primary choices in life are good vs. bad. In other words, if you have a good life you should be content. I can’t say I disagree with that statement. But, if you lived any significant amount of life, you know that there is not only the choice between bad and good, but also between good, better and best. Hence the expression, “living your best life!” A good life is commendable. The opportunity to make your good life even better is great. But, the best possible life hits the bullseye. When it comes to living life with God, He always wants us to have the best thing that meets the need; the best possible health; the best relationships; the best job; to have the best level of prosperity; all defined as the more than abundant life. Our God is a God of abundance. He is never the holdback in you getting what you need and want. Yet, many people are not living their best life. In reality, many people are not even living a good life. Why is this happening to people? What is occurring day by day that steals the best life from people? What beliefs have we been taught and believed that have led us to live far below par? If God has blessed you and I with the more than abundant life, then something must be hindering us from obtaining it, leading to a less than abundant life. Something or someone must have tripped us up. Do you want the best things in life or are you satisfied with just getting by day by day?

All of us have beliefs concerning what we can and cannot have in life. All of us. Many of us learned very early on that prosperity was something other people enjoyed. We observed how some folks lived, yet believed that kind of life was reserved for someone else. Or, according to how we were taught, believed that people with lots of money and resources must somehow be evil and that having wealth was not something we should desire. Some teach that money is the root of all evil. Yet a closer inspection of the Bible would reveal that it is the “love” of money that is the root of all evil, not the money itself. God is always more interested in people’s hearts and attitudes than He is with whether or not they have lots of shekels. Nothing wrong with money. In fact, if you are honest, you know that more resources make your life infinitely easier. Why continue the false humility that preaches poverty and “going without” are somehow virtuous and important to God? Not having your needs met is the exact opposite of what God promises for His people. The poverty and “less than” logic imply that God has limited resources and as such any amount of abundance you receive somehow takes away from someone else. That is gambling, not true prosperity. God desires that you have more than enough in order that you can help others. Does it not always bless you to give from your abundance to others? I think we have this whole money thing all wrong. Having the best things in life is intricately connected to prosperity and prosperity begins with your mind. God never asks us to give until it hurts and we cannot give what we do not have. I have always found it interesting that the people who feel like they may be greedy are never actually the greedy ones. Greedy people never have that consideration. Instead, what you are butting up against is the wrong teaching you have had built into your mind. Don’t you want to bless your children and grandchildren? Don’t you do your best to make sure they have the best of everything, at least what your best can afford? Well, is it so hard to imagine that God the Creator of the heavens and the earth would want you to have His best? Is it not logical that He would want you to enjoy His best in every category of your life? The more than abundant life that God promised us is just that, more than abundant! It is a life of rich, blessed overflow. It is to have all of your needs met and that you get to decide what those needs are, not other people. The best things in life are to have your every need met and then some.

Religion, which promises us a good life, actually serves to hinder that process. Religion is always about what men do and hardly ever about what God does. The focus of religion will always be man and what man needs to do to earn God’s favor, love and care. Religion adds in limits where there are no limits. Religion glorifies going without as if God likes for His people to suffer. If you really believe that then you need less church and more Bible. In religion the folks telling you what you don’t need usually have more than you do. Sin consciousness and perpetually questioning how God feels about you are a recipe for the less than abundant life. Lord knows none of us need any help in feeling bad about ourselves. Where we need help is in feeling good about ourselves. We need to know that God loves us unconditionally and will do for us in spite of ourselves at times. You will never enjoy the best things in life as long as you listen to what men say. To our own master we either stand or fall and even then God is able to lift us up. We receive in this life exactly what we expect to receive, no more and no less. It is never that God doesn’t want us to have things. Rather, we get talked out of His goodness by the bad lessons we have been taught. We have believed all these false preachers and teachers and as such oppose our own selves. We expect the negatives readily, while questioning the validity of the good that happens to us. We are suspicious of the good, when we should be suspicious concerning evil. We should recognize the illogic in the conclusions people draw. If God can do anything, and He can, then why would He not do it for us? What would be His motive in functioning that way? If you want the best things in life, then you need to start questioning some of these things you have been taught.

Beliefs can be tricky things. Many beliefs we adhere to have been buried in our hearts and we do not even know they are there. People who grew up with a lot tend to expect a lot. While people who grew up with little tend to expect little. Both get exactly what they believe. So, here’s the rub. The limits you have set for yourself, knowingly and unknowingly, are the limits you end up living by. You want certain things for your life and need them, but your belief system says you cannot have them. Maybe you’re not good enough. Maybe you are undeserving and not worthy of the blessings. Maybe prosperity is not something you can enjoy and as soon as you get extra you have to find a way to get rid of it as quickly as you can. Those beliefs are erroneous and do not come from God. None of us are deserving on our own, but God made us deserving. None of us can find the best life by our own efforts, but God will lead us to it. None of us can meet all of our own needs, but God is our sufficiency. Your job, my job is to get those wrong beliefs out of our minds. It’s not easy and some things are harder to get rid of than others. But, we must if we are going to tap into the more abundant life God has promised us. We have to harmonize our belief system with what God says is true. Once we align our beliefs with what God says to believe, we will find everything we ever needed is right there for us. Everything! Otherwise you will spend your years striving for something you aren’t going to find. The harder you try, the more you fail. You fail not by lack of effort, but by lack of right believing, believing God. The best things in life come from God and He wants to give them to you.

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Til your good gets better and your better is best.” You have a very limited time on this earth. You are not getting any younger. Never stop dreaming of the life you have imagined. Seek the best things in life. Seek to be your best, not so God will finally love you, but because He already does. Change your thoughts and change your beliefs to think how God says to think. Stop putting limits where there are no limits. You are going to believe for something so you may as well believe for the best. Hit the bullseye. Life was intended to be enjoyed. Have you ever looked around at this marvelous planet? Someone took a lot of care to make it breathtaking for you. Someone is trying to send you a message every time you look outside. Someone wants you to know who He is and what life with Him is like. His focus is not on everything you do wrong. Rather His focus is on loving and caring for his most precious creation – man. The best things in life come from God. The more than abundant life awaits you. What are you waiting for?