Can You Live Your “Best Life” Now?
By Matt Dawson
Joel Osteen (a famous pastor in Texas) wrote a book several years ago called “Your Best Life Now.” To be honest, I still make fun of the title. I’m not a huge fan of SELF-HELP books, programs, and language that give people the impression that it’s all within their own power to change their destiny and experience their BEST LIFE now.
I was wrong about that. You can Live Your Best Life Now.
I’m not entirely wrong, because self-help instruction often negates or ignores God and puts ALL THE WORK on man to shape his destiny. This view is short-sighted and often comes with language like “you do you” or “be the best you you can be” or “find your authentic voice.”
However, I can’t argue that with the proper Biblical foundation of understanding how God has made you and empowered you through His Holy Spirit – YOU CAN live and experience YOUR BEST LIFE NOW!
And in order to do that, it takes an incredible amount of work. It takes DISCIPLINE. It takes commitment to living the way God has called us to live. It takes a proper theological understanding of not only BLESSING, but SUFFERING as well.
So let me rephrase my position by making this statement. A Life Devoted to God through His Spiritual Disciplines Can Experience Your Best Life Now!
Over the next several weeks at Journey, in our series “How to Get MORE from God,” we’re going to be discussing these essential spiritual disciplines. This is not a comprehensive list, but ones that almost everyone can agree are disciplines that directly influence our spiritual growth.
1. Reading God’s Word
There is simply NO WAY to know who God is and what God’s Will is for your life without reading His Word to us. This discipline effects all other disciplines. We can get everything else WRONG if we don’t actually read His Word and understand what He’s saying to us.
2. Prayer
This is our way to commune with God. It’s part mediation, part conversation. It’s talking with a friend, but also approaching our Lord and Savior. It’s thanking, asking, and sharing as well as listening, feeling, and resting. Prayer is essential to our connection to God and for His Holy Spirit to communicate with us.
3. Worship
This is often confused for music, yet music is a tool God gave us to worship. Worship is the celebration (both individually and corporately) of who God is and what He is doing (and has done). We do this anytime we acknowledge God and “pour out our lives” for Him. Many things can be done with a heart of worship including work, play, fellowship, solitude, and all of our other disciplines.
4. Rest (Sabbath)
Probably the most OVERLOOKED and misunderstood discipline is the command to REST. To rest is not necessarily just sleep or vacation, but rest is best described as when we “stop striving” in our own strength and power, and trust in God. God commands us to take ONE DAY of the 7 days He’s given us to sabbath rest. This not only takes discipline and practice, but needs to be done with an understanding of what our focus should be while intentionally resting.
5. Stewardship
We are either good stewards or bad stewards, there is no middle ground. If we fail to recognize that all that we have has been given to us by God, then we will be bad stewards. Stewardship is the discipline of living a generous life with our resources and following in obedience the ideals and instruction given to us (through His Word) on how to manage our money.
6. Evangelism
Also an overlooked discipline is sharing the message of Jesus with our circle of relationships. We call them our TOP 5 at Journey. It’s considered a discipline because sharing our faith with others FUELS US. We tell people that “Leading brings Hope” because evangelism is an act that not only brings the HOPE of Jesus to people who need Him, but also fuels us with HOPE in the process.
I hope you will engage with us for this entire series. It will be challenging, but I have no doubt that for those ready to take on the challenges, they will begin to experience MORE than they could ask or imagine and might begin to experience their Best Life Now!