The Best Is Yet To Come

A Devotional

“Give me discernment that I may understand your statutes.” Psalm 119:125 (NIV)

“Lemme hear it again, nurse!”

I lived for that single moment each day to hear the heartbeat of my baby when the nurse came through the ward. After weeks in the hospital, I dared dream my baby would live. But in the sixth month of my pregnancy, they rushed me onto the operating table and delivered a tiny girl who weighed 350 grams. They told me she had twenty-five percent chance of survival. Later, when the consultant came to explain that she had died, why was I shocked?

How could God let me glimpse the desire of my heart and then take it away?

Other disappointments entered my life. My writing seemed to be going nowhere fast. Articles got rejected. My book was taking too long to write. I didn’t get hired for a teaching job I felt particularly suited for. The relationship I’d just started finished much too soon…

I know my desires are Godly. When I view each one from my perspective, I can see that it seems good. It looks good. It feels right. That job at the ivy league university seemed perfect for me. My articles looked polished. I felt this man had Godly characteristics that would draw me closer to him and God…

It doesn’t matter how big or small the disappointment is, it still attacks my confidence level. How can God show me the desires of my heart and then whisk them away?

I've thought about this a lot. Maybe it's because He knows our future, which we don't. Does He want to develop our patience and trust Him to give us what He knows is best?

What I’ve learned is that we need to wait on God’s timing. Sometimes Satan sends us distracters, something good, but not something particularly right for us - immediately before God sends us the best. And we'll miss the best if we are not tuned into God’s will for our lives. Why settle for good when we can receive the best?

Our choices impact every single decision we make in life so we must learn to view them from God’s viewpoint. When we make any decision, we must continually ask God for a discerning spirit to see that something for what it really is. When God closes a door, I’m learning that it’s essential to trust Him if I want the best for myself and to fulfill His plan for my life.

Faith doesn’t just happen. We have to grow it by trusting God, especially when we feel disappointed. The upside is that God will comfort us and draw us closer to Him. Developing a discerning spirit will mature my faith, and I’ll be ready when He sends me the real deal. It might not be the job I think I want, or the magazine I think I want to be published in, or even the partner I imagine myself with. But it will be God’s best.

Lord, please help me to seek out Your will for my life. You know my temperament, my attitudes, and my abilities. You’ve already planned my future. Show me how to write the words that will inspire others to know you better. Let me teach the students whose hearts I can touch the most. Reveal the partner that You’ve chosen for me. Help me to seek out Your best.