Receiving God’s best — The Promise
The Lord our God is a blessing God. Throughout the Bible, God has shown how He wants to bless His people and show them His best. He has given many promises that make the fact known that you can receive and enjoy His best. These promises are guaranteed for God’s people. Back in the book of Deuteronomy, God spoke about some of these wonderful promises to His people.
Deuteronomy 30:1-5 NKJV Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you.Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.
Deuteronomy 30:9 NKJV The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers,
This promise contains a Biblical pattern for living in God’s best.
I believe it is possible for you to experience God’s best.
God’s Word contains the key to receiving His best. There is not a formula that produces the desired results. There are some common patterns that can help us prepare for God’s best. There are some things that help open our hearts and our lives so that God is able to pour out His best.
One thing you need to know is God wants His people to enjoy His best.
That is what God wants to do now for you.
In Deuteronomy 30, the Lord was speaking to Israel as they came into the Promised Land.
In His infinite wisdom and knowledge, God saw a time when Israel would turn away from Him. God knows the ways that we take and He knows how to bring us into the things He has prepared for us. When God saw that there would be times when His people would fail Him, He made a promise and possibility for them to return to His blessing.
God promised that even when His people go far away from Him, He is still willing to draw back.
The promise begins with the phrase… “take them to heart.”
Deuteronomy 30:1 NIV When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations,
That phrase “take them to heart” is more literally translated “come to your senses” or “remember”.
What is the Lord saying?
When you get to the place where you realize that you are not living in God’s best, “come to your senses.” The previous chapter shows all of the bad things that happen if God’s people turn their backs on Him. God said these terrible events are the natural consequences of bad actions. He said, “wars, pestilence, disease, and exile would come.”
Then God said, “when all those things happen, I want you to remember what I am saying.”
I want those events to be a wakeup call. I want you to say to yourself, “This is exactly what the Lord said would happen.”
God said that because He wants to make things right again.
He wants to be as close as possible to you again. He wants to bless you more than you want to be blessed. God is saying, “Before I can bless you, you need to remember.”
This is still true for us today.
Look at your life. Pay attention to the condition of things on the inside.
Take a good look at your heart.
People around you recognize when you are being blessed by God or not.
They may not understand exactly what has happened. The circumstances of your life may be holding together. Your life may not be falling apart. Yet, on the inside you are empty and hurting. You know that God has promised something better.
It is time to remember God’s promise.
Is it time for you to say “I don’t have to live this way?”
The Lord said, “It does not have to be like this.”
Perhaps it is time to remember.
Each of us needs to take a close look on the inside. Are you satisfied with where you are? Are you hurting on the inside? Are you celebrating God’s blessing with all of your heart, soul and mind? Is your life an expression of the Lord’s blessings?
Perhaps it is time to remember God’s promise.
Having remembered… we must return.
Deuteronomy 30:2 NIV When you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today,
Obedience to God’s Word is not just an external action.
The Lord put an emphasis on the internal. His best comes as a result of what happens inside of us. God requires a return to the Lord our God with all of our heart and with all our soul.
The Lord is saying: “When you’ve come to your senses, turn your heart toward God.”
When the Prodigal Son finally came to his senses in the pigpen, he made a turn and started the journey home. The pigpen was not the best place for him. While he was returning, his father saw him and started preparing a banquet and a bath. He was ready to restore him and celebrate his return.
God is willing to meet us on the road.
God’s promise in verses 6 and 8 is power to enable us to obey His commands.
We cannot finish the task in our own power. God asks us to start the journey home.
We cannot enjoy God’s best if we do not return.
Returning to God is the same thing as repentance. Turn from the way of life that has brought you down. This change of heart and soul is the fountain for God’s blessings.
God has promised restoration.
Once we remember and return – we are positioned for the Lord’s response — restoration.
Deuteronomy 30:3-5 The LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again… He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous…
The first thing the Lord does is restore.
God will restore what has been lost because of sin. He will restore what the enemy has taken from you.
In Joel 2:25 the Lord said: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.”
Sometimes restoration is the natural consequence of returning to God.
When we begin to live according to God’s plan, things just work better. Beyond that, God begins showering His blessings on us in natural and supernatural ways. The Lord responds to our return with… restoration. Restoration brings us back to the place of God’s blessing.
Deuteronomy 30:6 NIV The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
God is talking about a covenant relationship.
The emphasis is on what happens on the inside. What God is doing impacts our heart, mind, soul, and spirit. Every aspect of who we are is going to be changed.
Do you notice how the circle is completed here?
In verse 2, God called for His people to return to Him with all their heart. Now He promises that when we return, He will increase the capacity of our hearts to love Him more.
God does not want just an external return.
He is not just offering external blessings. God is going to bless you in those ways, but He is offering the incomparable riches of divine heart surgery. God is enabling us to love and serve Him. He is prepared to do the best for you on the inside and on the outside.
When God gives us a new heart, it enables us to enter into the joy of the Lord.
When we return to Him, He sets our hearts free. He renews us for that purpose we were intended.
The last response of the Lord is… rejoicing
Deuteronomy 30:9 NIV Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as He delighted in your fathers,
That word “delight” means rejoice or have enjoyment.
Did you hear what God said?
He is going to rejoice over you and be full of delight. He rejoices over us.
Your desire for God’s best is in sync with God’s plan.
God is ready to send times of rejoicing. When we return to Him, there is rejoicing in heaven.
Much of the rejoicing we experience is an overflow of God’s rejoicing.
God’s joy just spills over into our lives. Are you ready for an overflow of God’s best?What is the condition of things in your life? Are you ready for something more?
The prophet Isaiah has a specific word for you.
Isaiah 40:1–5 NKJV “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. 2“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.” The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; 5The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
This prophecy is a direct reference to the blessing that is coming on God’s people through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3 and Luke 3:4-6 tells us to “prepare the way of the Lord and make His paths straight.”
What is this saying?
Isaiah and John the Baptist are telling us to get ready for the blessing of the Lord. When Jesus enters your life, dramatic changes will happen. Your warfare will end and your iniquity will be pardoned. The Lord is offering double for all your sins. The Lord is coming to your aid with two hands full of blessings. He is prepared to pour His blessing on your spirit, mind and body. He will make your crooked places straight and your rough places smooth. The glory of the Lord is going to be revealed.
Get ready to receive God’s best.
