The Good or the Best?

This excerpt comes from one of my favorite devotionals, Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest. I think that the reading for May 25 is my favorite of the whole year. I know I’m a few days late posting it here, but I want you to enjoy this goodness, regardless of the date:

Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best…

Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “… walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1).

I think my conviction here lies in the reality that I can tend to live a Christian life that focuses on mortifying sin (which it should) but simultaneously ignores direction in which he is leading me. I want a life that is willing to lay down my good for the his best. Oh, that I would always choose to grow spiritually, that I would lay down my own rights, that I would walk with my eyes focused on God. 

The entire reading can be found here.

all things grow

I am thankful that spring has arrived. April is here and the earth shows it. There are tender green leaves budding out from the tree outside my window. The days stretch out a little more with each sunset, leaving more time to soak in the sweetness. Another sign of spring is that my urban herb garden is absolutely thriving. The plants grew a bunch over spring break and I’m excited to harvest some basil soon.

The new life and growth of April reminds me of the hope that I have in Jesus. One of my all-time favorite songs is Chicago by Sufjan Stevens. In the song Sufjan sings, “You came to take us, all things go, all things go/ To recreate us, all things grow, all things grow.” This is true of a life that is made new in Christ. Jesus’ death and resurrection make way for us to have new life. Just like the little basil seeds in my garden grow each day as I set them in the sunshine, we cannot help but grow as we walk with him. He brings new life as we abide in him.

Jesus himself uses lots of plant metaphors to describe the Christian life. In John 15:5 he says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is he that bears much fruit.” As we abide in (or live in) the true life that Jesus offers, we flower and grow and bear fruit for his glory. Let the springtime growth remind you of the true life and growth that is in Jesus, the source of life.