Our Hightest Good for His Glory!

When I tell the children about Jesus I always make certain that they understand that Jesus wants our highest good. No matter what God asks us to do or not to do it is always because He desires our highest good and He knows exactly what is best for us at all times.

Also, we are supposed to want the highest good for ourselves and for others. If we all were living our lives for our own highest good and the highest good of others can you imagine what the world would be like?

So what is our highest good and how do we know what the highest good of another person should be?

When God made Adam and Eve He made them in His image and likeness. God warned them about the Tree they were not supposed to eat from because He loved them and wanted their highest good. The reason God put the Tree in the garden was because God knew that the only way for Adam and Eve to truly know who they were and what they wanted was to give them choices. God did not want to design robots that "had" to love Him. God wanted to give us a choice of whether we wanted to love Him or not, even though there is no real reason not to love Him if we truly know Him! So, choices are good - they help us determine what we really want and who we really want to be.

Now, what is our highest good? It is to know God and love Him and to be like Him as much as possible, since we have been made in His image. What is the highest good of another? It is to help them know God, love Him and be like Jesus.

What does it look like to be like Jesus and why is that so important? Jesus is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Self-control, Faithfulness etc. and who doesn't want to have these traits anyway? It is so important to be like Jesus because then we will be continually walking in love and faith instead of fear and selfishness.

So, if being like Jesus is the highest good for everyone then we need to be working towards that as our highest goal and helping others to get there too. In seeking our highest good we find that our God-Given Purpose plays a huge role in all of this because when we are walking in a manner that God already designed for us to walk in then we truly will have fulfillment, satisfaction and contentment. And it feels SO good to live according to how we've been designed by the Great Designer Himself. It is when we skip town and try to be something we are not that we get into trouble and we've all skipped town at some point or another and we know what that feels like and where that gets us.

As we walk in the particular design God has for us we will experience the most joy, peace, love, passion and satisfaction ever and then what happens? God gets the glory because everyone can see our light because we are beaming and we all know it is a miracle from God we are witnessing. If we take our skills, talents and spiritual gifts and use them inappropriately then we usually feel defeated, unhappy and angry and we hurt ourselves and others and that is when people look at the Christians and say, "We don't want to be like those hypocrites."

So, what keeps you from being on the path of your highest good and your God-Given purpose? I know a couple of my kids really struggled with other people annoying them all of the time. Once they realized that it was a choice to be annoyed or not then they realized that they could actually enjoy others and not be so annoyed. When we think that we are the center of the universe and that our wishes and wants are the most important things on this planet then we have lost our focus. Our focus must be on our Great Designer Who has our highest good in store. When we fellowship with "The Creator of All Good Things" then we soak in Who He is and the delight that truly comes from these type of encounters with the Almighty One - well there is nothing better or more fulfilling than being touched by the Father's hand.

Loving His Light!

Rebecca