Where Life Works Best

“Make sure you understand what the Master wants.” Ephesians 5:17 The Message

“Learn to live where life works best.”

My thoughts today are about “where life works best.”

Even sincere and well-intended advice can sometimes be wrong. Sometimes a person is told, “You can be anything that you want to be.” But can you be? There’s a better question. Should you be anything that you want to be, even if you can?

Have you ever tried to step into some one else’s job that “just wasn’t you?” Some years ago, I was ministering in England and was graciously invited to play golf at a beautiful, seaside Country Club. My host loaned a set of clubs and a pair of golf shoes to me. But the clubs were unfamiliar to me, and the shoes just a bit large. By the end of the round, which was mercifully cut short by a storm that quickly blew in from the sea, my feet were so sore from the ill fitted shoes, that I was relieved to be rained out. Life is just not much fun when it doesn’t fit you just right.

As I was growing up, my Dad often told me, “You can do anything anyone else can do, if you have the same opportunity and the training and experience they have had.” I know that he only wanted me to believe in myself. Meanwhile, I have learned that I do not need to be able to do what others can do, nor determine for my self what I want to be. God has long had all that worked out.

The wisest thing is to discover the spiritual DNA God placed within you. You are one of a kind, truly unique, and God has a plan for you that is especially created for only you. The One Who made you perfectly knows what you will do best, and what will bring you the greatest achievements with satisfaction. “All the days ordained for me were in Your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16. Secular thinking doesn’t buy this, seeing no author behind the book, and no purpose behind life. Why then, they would reason, not just be whatever you want to be? Except what do you do when you find that what you want to be is not what you are best suited for, nor where you are the happiest?

Often people choose a course for their life for wrong reasons, such as money, fame, power, celebrity, and career advancement. That doesn’t work out well. Many such reasons are not of themselves unworthy, just inadequate. What you do with your life should be consistent with your interests, abilities, and opportunities. Those will usually be aligned with how God made you and the motivational and spiritual gifts that God has given you. See Romans 12:4-8. How you invest your life should bring you a measure of joy, a sense of fulfillment, and a pride of accomplishment. Life works best with a clear understanding that you are serving God in your life’s work, while contributing to the well being of others.

The Bible’s wise advice is, “make sure you understand what the Master wants.” That’s where you find that life works best. “Prove for yourself what that perfect will of God is.” Romans 12:2.

My prayer for you today is that you know what God has created you to be and to do.