A Message from Home Office
by Greg Williams
You’ve heard the phrase, “Don’t settle for less!” It’s a well-meaning attempt to motivate you to not give up on the best life you have envisioned for yourself. You’ve likely heard the challenge in regard to relationships, your career, financial dreams, or even your personal growth goals.” It can be any number of things where you are challenged to not settle for less. Add to this the number of motivational gurus who “know” the secret to not settling. They will gladly share their discoveries with you in their latest book or video, for a small price of course (since they are not settling for less).
But how do we know if we have settled?
If we were ever asked if we are living our best life, I think most of us would say “No, of course not.” We are creatures who are always longing for more. How could we ever honestly say we have arrived at our best life?
This is where a Biblical and Christian perspective is helpful. The believer already knows it is not up to him or her to envision or bring about their best life. That has been settled in Jesus. He is our life and to choose anything less is what the Bible calls idolatry. The Bible is full of dire warnings against idolatry because God loves us, and he knows that choosing anything over Jesus for our life is to truly settle for less on a catastrophic level.
King Solomon’s story recorded in Ecclesiastes speaks vividly to how more gold, more women, bigger palaces, and faster horses simply do not bring the lasting fulfillment — a fulfillment that can only be found in a relationship with the true God of the Bible.
Here is another such warning painting the same picture of settling for less.
“Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones, even though they are not gods at all? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols! The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay,” says the Lord. “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me — the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!”
Jeremiah 2:11-13 (NLT)
Jesus is the fountain of living water, and our loving Father has given us our best life in Jesus Christ. We can never achieve for ourselves more than God gives us by his grace. And he has given us his Son, in whom we can live our best life by the Spirit. We have all spiritual blessings in Jesus now, so let’s not become distracted by shiny things and get caught up in the striving for what we already possess in Jesus! Know this: you can trust the Father – after all, he never settles for less when it comes to you and me.
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.