We Have A Choice // Let God Show Us The Way Shembull

To Experience the Best (Day) Ever

This is the best day: You here with Me. Can it even get any better? Yes, yes, I know. You are thinking that it can—it most certainly can. When I tell you I am excited about this day with you, I want to make something clear: I am not overlooking the challenges you are facing. I know the mountain looks daunting—that you don’t know how to navigate obstacles so far, so high. How, how, you wonder? How can I get through? So when I proclaim to you that today, this day, is the best day, you wonder, how, how can this be?

I love being with you. It is that simple. And my love for you, my view of your future, my knowing what is ahead—the room prepared for you, the place I have for you, by my side, is what I see too. It is not just the mountain. It is the rich water flowing, my life within you, that brings a new way to see any situation. This is what I see.

That mountain? I can show you the way through. That financial stress? I can give you counsel. That unknown result? I can give you patience as you wait and trust in Me. The challenges you face in this life—the heartache, the pain, the darkness that seems to cover everything sometimes—are challenges we get to face together. I am your strength, your guide, your hand to hold and your rock on which to stand. My companionship, my life in you, gives you resilience. You can face any hard thing, this best day.

I know your heart hurts for what has happened in the past. I know the weight of this day makes you wonder how you can stand. But I am standing. I am moving. I am holding you up and showing you how to take one step and then another. I am growing you to be more and more yourself, more and more like Me. Each day you say yes to me is the best day. Each moment you surrender, each situation you look for me, is the best, the best day. For in these moments you are growing in your fullness. You are growing in your faith. You are growing in your love for me. And there is nothing in this life you need more than that.

Exercise:

We are each made to experience God differently. While He is the same Father, the same King, the same Spirit, the same rock on which we stand, we each hear His voice uniquely. We have experiences with him that are different than anyone else’s. And your saying yes to these unique opportunities can make any moment, no matter the challenge you face, into a “best” day.

So, your best day with Jesus? What can it look like for you? Well, let’s look at how He’s made you. What are your favorite things? What are those things through which God designed you to experience His love—personally, uniquely?

Let me give you some simple, practical examples.

Jenn and I have a friend who loves playing with her two dogs. She stands in her backyard, trees shading her face, sunlight falling on the grass, and watches them—their exuberance, their energy. She throws a ball and they chase it and return it to her again and again. And she feels God’s delight—His presence with her, His laughter—in this simple yet profound experience. When she takes a few minutes out of her busy day to engage in it, she remembers she is loved.

Another friend of ours loves crafting objects and furniture out of wood and metal and giving them away. He’s heard Father God call him His “Craftsman.” And when he dreams about making something new—and then begins his work to create it—he experiences his Father’s love—His joy, His delight, His presence. By engaging in an activity he loves, he gets to be a beloved son and he gets to be with his Abba Father. Those days are always among our friend’s best days.

Now, I know, this question—what do you love, personally, uniquely—is easy for some people to answer, but quite tough for others. You see, for us to awaken to how God created us to experience His love sometimes requires us to break through agreements we’ve made about our own deservedness or our neediness—I’m not lovable; He loves other people more that He loves me; I don’t need His love. These kinds of agreements stand in the way of His love, in the way of our receiving His love and care—and Father would never agree to them. So, as you do this exercise, when and if these kinds of agreements arise, recognize them and renounce them. Because they aren’t true.

God made you so that He would have someone to love. Standing now in eternity, He sees everything you are and everything you will be, everything you’ve done and everything you will do—and He loves you still, enormously. He saw all of that before He even made you—and He made you still. He made you to be loved, and He will not be denied—no matter what you decide about yourself or about Him. You cannot stop Him loving you. But you can stop yourself from receiving all of that love.

So, again, as you do this exercise, when and if negative agreements arise, about you or about God, just recognize them and renounce them in the name of our King.

Okay, now, and for the next few moments, pick up a pen, or open your tablet or laptop, and simply write down what you love. Make a bulleted list. Come up with between 10 and 25 things—things you love doing, activities that bring joy, experiences that make you feel alive. Don’t list anything because you think it’ll make others think you’re cool or saintly. List things that move your heart, get it beating fast, or slow it down. List things that give you rest, restore you, give you recreation, and connect you to God and to other people. Things that allow you to worship Him in the doing.

And then, when you are done, once you’ve gotten a list together, take it to Jesus. Ask Him what He thinks of your bullet points. Ask Him if He thinks it’s accurate—and then edit accordingly.

What you’ll end up with is a roadmap to get to your best days.