God Doesn't Want Your Best

This month's devotional comes from Mr. Jack Walter from Clays Mills Baptist Church in Lexington, KY.

Psalm 39:5 "Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah."

 There are many different lessons that we can learn from this verse, but today I want to focus on the last phrase- "...verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity..." Vanity is defined as worthless or empty. In other words, the Psalmist is saying that when a man is at his best, he is worthless or empty. This may surprise you, young person, but God doesn't want your best. Now, when you read that you might say, "Hold on a minute. God tells us in the Bible to give Him our best." It is true that God tells us to give our best, but it is always in relation to things. In Exodus, we find the children of Israel are commanded to give their best oil, wine, and gifts. In Leviticus, they were commanded to set apart the best lamb. In Numbers, they are to give the best of the vineyards and first fruits. However, when it came to them specifically as an individual person, they were not to give their best. They were told to give themselves. Not a part, not half, but 100% of them was to be wholly given to God. Likewise, as children of God, we are commanded to give all of ourselves to God. Upon studying this subject, I have found four areas that, when given to God, can help us to grow spiritually and help us to give all of ourselves to God. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." Similarly, Mark 12:30 states, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." In reading these two verses, we can see that the four areas in which we should surrender fully to God are our heart, soul, strength/might, and mind. These could also be summarized like this:

 1. What you love 

2. What you believe 

3. What you do 

4. What you think about. 

Now that we have determined the areas of life wherein we are to surrender, let's begin discussing how we can surrender these areas to God.

 

1. Our Heart - What We Love 

A very familiar Bible verse is Luke 12:34. It says, "For where your treasure is, there will you heart be also." We see here that whatever or whoever we give the most value in our life, we love. This is most easily seen in a marriage relationship. When a man loves a woman, he values her or sets her above all other women. This can also be done with things; the most common of which is money. As Christians, there should be nothing and no one we value higher than God. He is our Creator and Sustainer. In 1 John it says that we love Him because He first loved us. God values us above everything He has ever created. Think about that! Out of everything in this world, God values us, sinful men and women, above everything else. How much more ought we to value and love Him!

 

2. Our Soul - What We Believe 

2 Timothy 1:12b says, "...for I know whom I have believed..." Everyone at some point decides for themselves whether or not they believe in God. Who or what we believe in is very important. What we believe, in regards to our soul's eternity, is not a light or transient topic. The Bible makes it very clear that everyone who does not believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will spend eternity in Hell.

 3. Strength - What We Do 

Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might..." 1 Corinthians 10:31 says "...whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." These two verses, along with many others, emphasize the importance of not only doing everything well, but also doing it to the glory of God. As Christians, that is our purpose and goal in life: bringing glory to God. This requires continual thought on our part, to analyze everything that we do, and then ask ourselves, "Is this bringing or will this bring glory to God?" 

4. Our Mind - What We Think About

    Although this is the last on the list, it is by no means the least important. What we think about can affect what we love, believe, and do. One could argue that this is one of the most important things that a Christian must take great care of. The Psalmist says in Psalms 139:23, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts." Even though God already knows what the Psalmist was thinking about, he still asked the Lord to search his heart and thoughts. We too ought to daily ask God to search our hearts and minds, and to cleanse us of anything we should not think about or meditate on. As I draw this all to a close, I want to challenge you to give God every part of your life. Don't hold anything back from Him. One example to illustrate this would be a pie. If given the choice between the best piece of a pie or all of the pie, which would you choose? I know that I would choose all of the pie. Similarly, Christ wants all of us. He doesn't want the best part of our heart, He wants all of our heart. The same goes for our mind, soul, and strength. God is a jealous God, and He does not want to share us with the world. He sent His Son, Jesus, to die and pay our sin debt. Because of this, He doesn't want Satan or the world to have any part of our heart, mind, soul, or strength. As Christians, this should also be our desire. We should not be seeking what the world has to offer, but rather, we should seek after what God is offering us. His mercies are new every morning.

*The anniversary post will be posted at 8:47 pm tomorrow, exactly 1 year from the beginning post of the blog