Friday, June 12, 2015

"The Best He Can"



    We've all said it, and if sincere, there's nothing wrong with it: "I'll do the best I can."  

    When some asks us to help or commissions us to a task, the determination to do our best indicates a noble desire to respond and act to the utmost of our ability.  What more can we do than our very best?  The answer may surprise us.

    "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10).

   The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ sends His Spirit to dwell within all who believe, enabling a life far beyond human capacities.  He calls us to live according to His abilities and capacities.  Thus, life for the Christian does not involve doing the best we can.  We rather seek to do the best He can.  

   "I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (I Corinthians 15:10).

   The Apostle Paul testifies to a Power beyond his own strength, indeed, to "Christ, the power of God" (I Corinthians 1:24).  The indwelling Holy Spirit makes such a life possible, as revealed in the trusting, submissive, expectant heart of all who believe the many Biblical promises regarding God's enabling.  Is Christ who He declares Himself to be in Scripture?  Is He as present as promised?  Does He dwell and walk in us, as the Bible affirms?  If we answer yes to these questions, a great and privileged challenge awaits us in this moment and the rest of this day (and tomorrow, if God chooses to give us another earthly day).  Our Lord calls us to live according to His best rather than our own.  That is, we realize the standards of Scripture regarding heart, attitude, demeanor, action, and relationship are so high because the very definition of the Christian life involves the life of Christ rather than our own.  We "live through Him" (I John 4:9).  No sane person would seek to be like the Lord Jesus apart from the promise that His Spirit lives within us to enable such a life beyond our capacities.  "Without Me, ye can do nothing" He declared (John 15:5).  But with Him?  Ah, that'a a different matter altogether!  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).  

    "The best He can."  This is the life and aspiration to which God calls His trusting children in Christ.  Indeed, we have this day in which to realize the power from Above that vibrantly teems within our redeemed spirits through the presence of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus.  A trusting, submitted, and expectant heart prepares us to experience the wonders of a transcendent life, the life of the risen Christ.  His best constitutes the possibility and actuality of a life that honors God because it springs forth from the very life of God…

"He is thy life."
(Deuteronomy 30:20)
"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God."
(II Corinthians 3:5)

Weekly Memory Verse
    The Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind, an earthquake.  But the Lord was not in the earthquake.  And after the earthquake, a fire.  But the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire, a still, small voice.
(I Kings 19:11-12)

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