There is mystery to the year ahead. Downloading a customised preview of the coming twelve months of life isn’t an option. So, we’re heading into the unknown. That could be frightening, but it isn’t. Our story is not a mystery to the One who saw all the chapters before our life began. He has marked our year as ‘highly significant’, and each day will be a setting for him to take us to better levels of his best
Best is a superlative; there isn’t a level better than best. But there are levels IN God’s best that he wants us to enjoy.
Through our new birth in Christ, we became the best version of ourselves (in earthly bodies). The Father views us through the prism of his Son. He is aware of our faults and failures and knows that we are imperfect and unfinished – a work in progress. But he sees us as righteous and already seated with Christ. Our life that fell short is gone and, in its place, we have Life equal to the fullness of Christ.1 There is nothing bigger, better or deeper—we have received his BEST!
But we aren’t fully experiencing it.
The final unpacking of best will be at Christ’s return. But God hasn’t put ‘more’ on hold until then. He has given us his Spirit to share better levels of his best with us. He is not only the down payment of the future climax, but is also the carrier of an increase in enjoyment and reflection of him now. 
As long as we fix our heart on the Lord, and welcome the freedom of being changed, his Spirit will keep shaping us like him, with ever-increasing glory. This personal transformation is a lifelong journey of experiencing better levels of his best.
We can praise the Lord that he has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. But we are also to keep asking for an increase – to know him better (Eph 1:3, 17). We are encouraged to thank him for giving us everything we need. But we are also to keep reaching for an increasing measure of his likeness (2Peter 1:3, 5-8). His salvation gift is perfect! We celebrate it, yet we hunger for a deeper experience of it.
I encourage you to revisit last month’s post, Reach for More. Follow the guide at the end of the post, particularly the point on, Reaching for more in your journey with the Lord.
We can’t anticipate all that the new year will bring, but we can shape the way we journey through it. Two important shaping habits are:
- Thankfulness. Celebrate what the Lord has done in and for you through the past year. Nurture the habit of blending thanks for his goodness into all of your activities and circumstances of the day.
- Appetite for the Lord. He has filled this ‘highly significant’ year with plans for you to enjoy him and reflect him more. Announce to him, and to yourself, your hunger to experience better levels of his best.
12 Cor 5:21, Eph 2:6, Rom 3:23, Col2 :9,10
Go to Reach for More
