Skip to main content

Experiencing God's Best

 

The Apostle John writes in 1 John 1:1-4, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life — the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us — that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”

In an article written in 1948, A. W. Pink, an evangelist in England, wrote about what it means to truly experience the best that God has to offer, and to TRULY have fellowship with Him and with His Son, Jesus Christ. He wrote, “We mean for the Christian to have daily communion with God, to walk in the light of His countenance. It is for His Word to be sweet unto our taste, light to our understanding, and strength to the inner man. It is for prayer to be a delight, for answers of peace to be received without intermission, for the channel of supplies to remain unblocked, open. It is to have the mind stayed upon Him, to have a conscience void of offence, to have full assurance of our acceptance in Christ. It is for our graces to be kept healthy and vigorous—so that faith, hope, love, humility, patience, and zeal are in daily exercise. And such should be the experience of every Christian.”

I know many people who claim to be Christians would look at that list and say, “What? I’ve never experienced THAT in my Christian life!?!” When the Apostle John talks about having fellowship with God, He means exactly what A. W. Pink describes here. So, why do so many Christians never experience this “best” that God has to offer? Well, let’s read what John writes in the next couple of verses in that chapter, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (verses 5-7)

That’s the secret! Walking in the LIGHT! We cannot keep living with unconfessed sin in our lives and expect to daily have fellowship with God. A. W. Pink writes, “In their zeal to tell men how to escape from hell and make sure of heaven — many evangelical preachers have had all too little to say upon our conduct on earth; and consequently, many who entertain no doubts whatever that they will inhabit a mansion in the Father’s house, are not nearly so much concerned about their present walk and warfare as they should be; and even though they reach their desired haven, such slackness results in great loss to them now!”

Too many people seem to think “I’m a Christian, I’m going to heaven, I can just do whatever I want in this life and worry about the consequences later.” And they don’t seem to realize that by doing so, they are just making this life much more difficult. The Bible already tells us that we will have trials in this life, but why do we need to bring more trials and troubles into our lives? We cannot experience God miraculously working in our lives and see what only HE can do through us unless we completely seek to follow His commandments and obey His Word.

Many times we bring more troubles into our lives simply because we choose to ignore God and do what is displeasing to Him. One of my favorite verses says, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” (Joshua 1:8)

We too often judge our lives by this world’s standards. The world has laws and rules which say we’re not supposed to steal from people. But God’s Word says were not even supposed to “covet”. Man’s laws tell us adultery is wrong, but God’s Word tells us even looking at someone to lust after them is wrong. Man’s law tells us we’re not supposed to murder, but God’s Word tells us we’re not supposed to have any kind of ill feelings, malice, or hatred towards others – we’re even supposed to love our enemies!

Obviously living such a life as the Bible commands requires more strength and power than we could ever hope for in our own abilities, thus it requires us to call upon Almighty God and seek HIM to live through us. The “cost” of truly living for God is high, but the rewards are WELL worth it. When we seek to please Him and obey Him in EVERYTHING, we get what ONLY HE can offer – DAILY FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD!!!

Are you seeking to experience God’s best? Or are you willing like a lot of people to just settle for barely getting by? God has SO MUCH to offer us, when we seek to please Him, when we search for Him with ALL of our Hearts, and when we follow HIS WORD, forsaking this world.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Draw Near

  “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8) What an awesome promise this is. God doesn’t force us to draw close to Him, but He does promise that if we take the first step and start seeking Him, He will draw near to us. In the second part of that verse, the Bible tells us what we need to do in order to take that first step, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” In other words, stop trying to please both God and the flesh, and – get rid of the darkness that is in your life. God doesn’t abide where there is darkness, if we want to know Him personally and have daily fellowship with Him, we’ve GOT to get rid of what is not pleasing to Him in our lives. Now, many of us, rather than just saying, “Yes, I want to know God, so I’m going to do whatever it takes…”, we make arguments about why it’s not necessary to have that close relationship with God, OR we make excuses as to why it’s impossible for us to do it. We...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love Others

Despite his busy schedule during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln often visited the hospitals to cheer the wounded. On one occasion he saw a young fellow who was near death. "Is there anything I can do for you?" asked the compassionate President. "Please write a letter to my mother," came the reply. Unrecognized by the soldier, President Lincoln sat down and wrote as the youth told him what to say. The letter read, "my Dearest Mother, I was badly hurt while doing my duty, and I won't recover. Don't sorrow too much for me. May God bless you and Father. Kiss Mary and John for me." The young man was too weak to go on, so Lincoln signed the letter for him and then added this postscript: "Written for your son by Abraham Lincoln".  Asking to see the note, the soldier was astonished to discover who had shown him such kindness. "Are you really our President?" he asked. "Yes," was the quiet answer. "Now, is ther...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Thief or a Savior?

  In Matthew 27, we find the story of Jesus before Pilate. In verses 15-17, we read: “Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” So, here we have Pontius Pilate, who was the fifth Prefect (or governor) of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. And as it came time during the Passover feast for him to release a prisoner in his custody, he asks the crowd if they would rather have him release Jesus Christ, who had done NOTHING wrong, or release Barabbas who was a common criminal, and had obviously done much wrong. Seems like an EASY choice to make. Here is Jesus Christ who has come as the Messiah to save people from there sins. He has traveled for the past three years all around the Judean area h...
Post a Comment
Read more