It seems that warmer weather might finally be here to stay!
Shorts and sandals, mowing and trimming, tilling and planting. Spring is soon going to turn into summer!
It’s not uncommon right now see a car heading down the road with their windows down and a dog sticking its head out with a big ole’ smile on its face into the breeze.
Every time I see this, I can’t help but say, “Look at them just living their best life!”
Life is full of highs and lows. Of course, we find joy in the big moments as we celebrate accomplishments. It’s definitely the season for many of them, too! Graduations, weddings, births, vacations, and more.
However, there are also so many simple things in life that can bring us some of those same great joys! Like a dog with its ears and tongue flapping in the wind, we too can live our best lives!
What does a human’s best life look like, though?
How do we receive it?
How do we live it?
We have knowledge of certain truths.
Jesus is THE life.
When we receive His salvation, we are born again.
We receive the free gift of eternal life.
The Holy Spirit dwells within us transforming us into a new creation.
How do we practically live our best life, though?
Well, let’s turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Just about every few phrases are nuggets of truth that we can build our lives on in order to live them to their fullest!
Ephesians 4 (NLT)
Unity in the Body
1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
Humble.
Gentle.
Patient.
United; bound by peace.
That’s the stuff that great lives are made of!
That’s the life that we’ve all been called to live; that we were purposed and created to live!
It’s all only possible by One; THE LIFE!
4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all,
who is over all, in all, and living through all.
One.
Living our best life is to live for God.
However, your best life isn’t my best life because we’re obviously very different…
We’re living our best life living for God, but that doesn’t look exactly the same for each of us…
7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ.
The Greek word used here for a special gift is the word charis. It’s where we get our word charismatic. It’s typically translated to the English word grace. That’s really what these special, spiritual gifts all are. They are expressions or manifestations of God’s free gift of grace!
All different, all unique, but together, we better reflect the reality of who Jesus is by His grace given to us. We better reflect the One whom we are living for!
8 That is why the Scriptures say,
“When he ascended to the heights,
he led a crowd of captives
and gave gifts to his people.”
9 Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.
This quote is from Psalm 68. The gifts that God has given are far greater than just the spiritual gifts that we tend to focus on. God is a generous giver. Every, yes every, good and perfect gift comes from Him!
Listen to just some other parts of this song. We get to live our best lives filled with joy!
Let the godly rejoice.
Let them be glad in God’s presence.
Let them be filled with joy.
Sing praises to God and to his name!
Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds.
Singers are in front, musicians behind;
between them are young women playing tambourines.
His name is the Lord –
rejoice in his presence!
Father to the fatherless, defender of widows –
this is God, whose dwelling is holy.
God places the lonely in families;
he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.
With a bountiful harvest, O God,
you provided for your needy people.
Even those who lived among the sheepfolds found treasures –
doves with wings of silver and feathers of gold.
God wants us to live our best lives. He doesn’t want to withhold any good thing from us.
This is such a common misconception and misunderstanding about God.
From our very start in life, we are born into sin. It’s all that we know. We understand why some of the choices that we make aren’t good for us, but we still enjoy some part of them.
We think that to follow Jesus is to give up all fun in life, all of the parts of sin that we enjoy, and live a quiet and uptight life of discipline and sacrifice and sincerity.
That’s a lie! God wants to satisfy our desires with good things, not take good things away from us! He wants to actually give us real joy and a full and abundant life and equip and enable us to fully enjoy them!
Psalm 84:11
The Lord gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.
Sure, we choose to do what is right and turn away from sin. However, we’re choosing to turn away from bad stuff for better stuff. We’re choosing life over death. We’re choosing to live our lives how they were created to be lived and to be truly fulfilled and satisfied in life!
Jesus didn’t just descend from Heaven to earth and wrap Himself in flesh.
Jesus didn’t just take on the cross and get put in a grave.
Jesus didn’t just descend to Hades and Abraham’s bosom to set captives free.
Jesus rose again to life and ascended to the highest of heights!
His sorrow lasted the night, but His joy is everlasting!
Let’s get back to Ephesians 4!
10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
God doesn’t want us to be empty or void of things in life. He doesn’t want to tear us down. God wants to fill our lives to overflowing and build us up until we are fully mature lacking nothing!
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
God has given a unique grace and unique gifts to different people so that we can all be built up together and all equipped and all doing the work of ministry and all moving in unity so that we can reach the full and complete measure of Christ being whole and healthy and full and overflowing with His great unfailing love!
We have been called in verse 1 to lead a life worthy of the calling that we have received; children of God! We’ve been freely given all that we need to do it. The question is, “Will we live our best lives? Will we rise up in the grace given us? Will we choose to grow up? Will we take the promised land or will we keep looking back to what used to be longing for it to return?”
Living as Children of Light
17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.
20 But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. 21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy.
There’s only one way to deal with the old sinful nature that we used to live by. Throw it off! Crucify it! Get rid of it! Let that old self die!
To live our best lives is to allow Holy Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes. Our words, our actions, our relationships, everything else will follow! We must allow Holy Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes!
25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. 26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.
28 If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need. 29 Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.
31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
This one chapter provides us with so much simple and practical wisdom on how to live our best lives. If we could take hold of just one simple nugget of truth from it, live it out well, then move on to the next truth, our lives would just keep getting better and better!
God wants to fill our lives with joy!
God wants us to enjoy this life that He has given us!
He doesn’t want to steal anything away from us, He wants to fill our lives to overflowing with every good thing!
Today, let’s commit to follow Jesus and live our best lives!