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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.

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