Live Your Best Life--with God
Our twenty-first century culture doesn’t equate a satisfying, fulfilling life with one that is lived for God. Why? Often God says “no” to pleasures that most people believe are the key to happiness in this life. But some of us know the truth, even if we had to learn the hard way, that the God of creation and redemption floods His children with a satisfaction and joy that doesn’t turn around and bite them or disappear and abandon them to debilitating consequences.
Instead, God gives what is pure and eternal, life that springs up from inside us, because He lives there. Whew! THAT’ is what we actually want, but we don’t believe He is good for it, or we don’t believe He will give it to us freely. We assume there must be strings attached, and we certainly don’t want to give up our sinful pleasures, even if we know they are bound to stab us in the back eventually. (Maybe it won’t happen to us.)
So, the following paragraphs contain the truth, a truth that is as dependable as your confidence in the Bible and the testimony of Christians who finally decided to trust God for their best lives.
You Are Invited to God's Banquet of Delights
Isaiah 55 begins with a liberal invitation to a lavish banquet that, frankly, only a fool would reject:
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness [abundance]. Isaiah 55:1,2
Clearly, the invitation is a metaphor for the spiritual life God freely offers to those who will accept His invitation. He knows you have a need. He knows your soul is thirsty and malnourished even if you haven’t realized it yourself. So, He says, “You. Come.”
Notice that God isn’t unaware of our seeking satisfaction elsewhere. He questions why we would go to another source, looking to delight our soul in things that cannot satisfy us. Instead, He offers to give us what is “good” and promises to delight us with abundance–spiritual abundance that spills over into every avenue of life.
It is a luscious spread of delights that meets every need.
And it is freely offered.
Nowhere else does this kind of invitation exist, especially one that delivers on every promise of fulfillment.
You Are Thirsty and Need His Satisfaction
God’s invitation to live your best life with Him will go unanswered unless you are aware of your need. But it’s human nature to walk through life blind to our own spiritual poverty and dryness. Our souls are thirsty, whether we know it or not, and we constantly try to quench that thirst with temporal and fleshly drink that only dehydrates our souls further.
However, we cannot satisfy our thirst from any source within ourselves. We must bring refreshment from outside. We are dependent creations. As physical thirst shows our need for something greater than ourselves, so our spiritual thirst indicates we need something greater than what exists within us–and even what exists in the world.
What we need is bigger than anything this world contains–we need God, the Completer of our souls. We need the water of His Spirit. Dramatic? No. This truth cannot be overstated. Instead of seeking the dirty, disease-infested waters all around us, we must hear His invitation and come to the waters of life He freely offers.
The question is whether you trust Him enough to drink and receive His invitation?
What Does Your Best Life with God Look Like?
If there is a catch, here it is: you don’t get what you want, you get HIM. You make the choice because He becomes your desire. God isn’t a genie that grants your every selfish wish or who is meant to serve your purposes. Instead, His Spirit satisfies your soul so that you are ready and willing to see life His way, and when you do, you are eager to enlist in His mission for you. It’s an awesome way to live! The one who created you and knows you best begins preparing you for life with Him and for Him.
And although He doesn’t indulge your selfish desires, He does lavish His children with good gifts:
Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Psalm 37:4
God invites you to come and drink of His spiritual life, to delight in Him or enjoy Him. As you do, He considers the desires of your heart, as they align with His good intentions toward you, and even makes this incredible promise to fulfill them. To live your best life with God means you begin to crave good things, things He is more than willing to give to you as His child.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Ephesians 3:20
In short, the abundant life God offers you means living above circumstances, being delighted, filled, and satisfied regardless of what trials or conditions enter your world. He springs up as eternal life from within. For some, this may be difficult to imagine, and for others, it’s the reality of their daily lives.
How Do You Begin an Abundant Life with God?
Valid question if you are ready to sign up for this love that is relentlessly kind, giving, satisfying, fulfilling, and eternal. It all begins with the One who is the bridge between a holy God and us fallen, sinful creatures. Abundant life flows from God through Jesus Christ. Faith in His sacrificial death and resurrection bring us from the coffin of sin to the new, abundant life. We become His child, which is a prerequisite for living our best life with God and partaking of the lavish banquet He offers.
But there is more. Once you are His, the journey has just begun. You must follow in His steps, grow to know Him more intimately through His Word, surrender to His will for You, and depend on Him for everything. As you walk this path and grow in your love for Him, your soul becomes saturated with all His goodness, and Spiritual life flows through you. He guides your steps, because you believe by faith that He knows the best path forward.
But what if you misstep? If this happens, God is there. The blood of Christ, His forgiveness and cleansing are still there. But you must return to Him and forsake whatever path you were on. Ask Him for His best life for you once again, and He will put you back on the path. There will be tears and likely some consequences, but He will get you where you need to be. Submit and surrender and that well of life will spring up in your soul once again. Live it. Don’t forsake it.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14
Want to know more about how to have a relationship with God? Watch this video.
