Are You Afraid Of God’s Best?

Don’t answer too quickly, it is a deeper question than it might appear. It might seem easy to say, “Of course I want God’s best for my life, that would be great!” The problem is when we say that, most of us are envisioning that His best is synonymous with the easiest. We picture God giving us happiness, health, maybe not wealth, but definitely enough money to be comfortable, and fulfillment in whatever we do. We do not think that God’s best could include illness, a car accident, or a lost job.

And I hear your arguments: those things come because there is evil in the world; Satan is behind the bad things; we all make choices; and probably a few more. Yes, all of those can be true, but they weren’t true for Job in the Bible and sometimes they aren’t true for us either. Sometimes God actually allows things we don’t see as good at the time because He can see the end from the beginning. He knows how much we are going to grow through the hard stuff.

I actually thought of this question recently as I was contemplating something that I view as very important and have been hanging onto rather tightly. I realized that the loss of this item might really be God’s best for me and He might have things planned for my life that I can’t even imagine at this time. BUT am I willing to accept His best or am I going to stay in the safe, known, not so best?

It comes down to another “ouch” question. Do I truly believe that God is who He says He is? He says He is a good father who always keeps His promises–and even when I have been impatient–He has. He says He will never leave us or forsake us–and even though I have been through some extremely dark times in my life–He never has.

So, after much contemplation and soul-searching, I am going to answer yes to my question. As scary as it seems to me right now, I am going to say yes, I want God’s best in my life, no matter what it might look like!

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'” Jeremiah 29:11

I would love to hear some of your thoughts about this question too!