Pam, the $100 Winner... Knowing God's Will: Good or Better

Pam the $100 Winner

Someone let me know that Pam, our $100 winner from Hi/Lo Thursday is a great single mom with six kids... and a flooded basement this week. I thought we would give Pam a nice Valentine's surprise, and make it $200 to help her out. So we sent $200, and I wonder if some of you wonderful folks might send her a little something to help out. From what I've heard about Pam, she's a great mother who is giving her life to raise six kids. Send her money via PayPal to: jpagler@adamswells.com

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Saturday night. Tomorrow's Sunday. Valentines. I thought about putting up something on "love" but then realized there's not a much better way to show our love for our spouse or sweetheart than to seek God's Will. Since we have been looking at this for a couple of weeks, I want to keep the thought going as I have a few more points I want to cover.

Good or Better

1 John 2:17 - And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (NKJV)

Here's a reminder of what we've talked about:

• Does God's Word contain a plain and direct answer to your question or circumstance?
• Ask yourself "is this really necessary?"
• How would Christ respond?
• Is it worthy of my epitaph?
• Will others be drawn to Christ or turned away?

Today's question that helps us in determining God's Will is:

What is the most edifying decision I can make?

First let's define the word "edify":

• to instruct or improve spiritually, from Latin, to erect a house
  build; establish;
• to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge
  uplift; enlighten; inform

So as you can see from the definition we are not considering a choice between good or bad, right or wrong; we are trying to determine what is better, or the best... what is MOST edifying.

• Which choice will instruct or improve you the most spiritually?
• Which choice will build you up and help you establish a deeper relationship with God?
• Which choice will give you greater instruction and improvement, morally and spiritually?
• Which choice will enlighten you more about God and cause you to be more informed about the Lord?

This aspect of God's Will is more difficult to discern because the answers are all varying degrees of good. Some choices will be good and perfectly okay with God. Other choices will be better and not only okay, they will also be of some noticeable benefit to you in your growth as a Christian.
And yet another choice may be the very best, and not only okay with God, it will be especially blessed because you have chosen what will bring the most glory to the Lord.

Most times choosing the "best" over "better" or "good" will also carry the highest price in effort, discipline and sacrifice.

Choosing the best will rarely be synonymous with choosing the easiest. There are few things in the "worthy walk" that are easy (not to be confused with joyful, light or peaceful). Easy is rarely "the best" in the sense that the most spiritual growth and depth would be the result.

The first thing to consider may sound too simple to bring up, but let's not make the mistake of assuming everyone will know to ask first: "is my choice edifying at all?"

1 Corinthians 10:23 - All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. (NKJV)

Some things may be permissible within the bounds of our Christian liberty, but that doesn't automatically mean that everything permissible is also edifying. Now, working under that assumption that our choice IS edifying, then we need to consider the idea of "good, better, best". Sometimes "Option A " is good, "Option B " is better and "Option C " might be best. Just the effort it takes to recognize and understand that there is more than one choice is beneficial in and of itself.

What is MOST edifying will be what brings the MOST glory to God. Being honest enough to see the difference, mature enough to consider it and humble enough to keep from deceiving ourselves are the ingredients of spiritual maturity.

I'm going to leave the point there and not beat it to death. This is not a simple consideration or idea. There are no pat answers or checklists to follow. It takes trust in God, prayer and patience. But it's worth the effort.