The ocean waves were crashing just a few metres away, wave after wave after wave. The sun was warm but not too hot and there was a great breeze keeping us cool. After a challenging month in Zambia, I was almost delirious with joy. This was perfect! Jami and I were enjoying some much needed fellowship together, asking each other challenging questions and sharing what the Lord was teaching us. We both dreaded the day that this perfect month in South Africa would end.
We loved our incredible ministry hosts. We loved our ministry at a safehouse for abandoned and neglected children (http://www.thekingschildrenshome.org/). And we loved our new church family at Crossways Christian Fellowship. Every day seemed to get better and better. Couldn’t it just be this perfect forever? Then Jami shared a word she got from the Lord that I will never forget. The Lord asked her, “Do you think this is the best I can do?”
Boom. Holy Spirit conviction. I was living out of a poverty mentality. My focus was on my lack rather than His provision.
How many times in our life do we shortchange God and all His glory by believing the lie that our best days are behind us? We believe the lie that He can’t do better, give us better, love us deeper. We believe the lie that Moses, David, Paul, your favourite preacher, your friend, the list goes on… experience more of God than we can. We believe the lie that God isn’t as good in the wilderness or the valley as He is in the oasis or the mountaintop.
But let’s be clear on one thing – we serve a God of increase. Our best is still yet to come.
So why don’t we live our lives that way? Why don’t we expect more, take more risks, dream bigger, love harder, live more? Because I’ve seen it in myself, I think so many of us have a deep fear of failure or disappointment or pain or rejection. That’s really what it all comes down to: fear. But God is the exact opposite of fear, He’s love. Where fear paralyzes, He liberates. What fear keeps bound, He sets free. Where fear comes to steal, kill and destroy, He comes to give life and life abundantly, above all that we could ever ask or imagine (John 10:10, Ephesians 3:20-21).
I’ve crossed the halfway mark of the Race. As I’ve had the realization that there are more days behind me on the Race than there are ahead, I have nothing to fear. Because I’ve also realized that the World Race is not the best thing I will ever do. Comparison is the thief of joy, while contentment allows it to blossom. I’ve realized that Abba is good and continues to give good gifts. I’ve realized that the best thing I can ever have is His Presence – to have Him as a Father and Friend. The best part is that I can have that whether I am on the Race or not, His Presence goes with me wherever I go. Just like the ocean right in front of me, wave after wave, He plans on taking me from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18), until my eternity is filled with His glory alone.
