Best For You

Scripture: John 16:5-7 (Click link for scripture in Bible Gateway)

5 “But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. 6 Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. 7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. (John 16:5-7 NLT)

As we read through these “Famous Last Words” chapters, I’m trying to keep the narrative flow clear in my mind. It helps to take a few extra minutes and read the chapter before and the chapter following the one we’re inching our way through. This entire discourse, from the foot-washing at the table in Chapter 13 to the arrest in the Garden at the beginning of Chapter 18 may have taken three hours, maybe more. We’ve been in this narrative for twenty-six days already, and we’re not finished yet! So it’s important to keep the dots connected.

Jesus and his friends had been together pretty much full-time for more than three years. They had left their jobs, businesses, were away from their families much of the time, and had developed an “on the road with Jesus” lifestyle. This life had its challenges, but the very things that were challenging also produced the most exciting moments – healings, miracles, Jesus’ teaching and wisdom. The fact is, they were in a kind of itinerant, miracle-rich comfort zone. It had been a good season, a very good season! And Jesus’ talk about going away was very unsettling to them.

It’s easy for me to get comfortable with “good!” Then when change comes and I’m confronted with the uncertainties major changes bring, I can sometimes even get reasonably comfortable with “not so good.” I like things to stay pretty much as they are: familiar, predictable, mostly manageable, most of the time. You know what I mean?

Jesus knows what is good for me, but he also knows what is “Best for Me!” And if he doesn’t change up things from time to time, I’ll end up clinging to the “good” until it sours and becomes “not so good.”  The future my Father has planned for me is the future that is “Best for Me.”  Jesus always has what is “Best for Me” in mind.

Prayer:

Father, I desire your “Best for Me” plan over my comfort zone, over my personal preferences, over all my plans and hopes and desires.  Please be patient with me when I try to hold on to the comfortable and familiar. Don’t give up on me!  Please keep leading me gently and firmly along the path that you know is “Best for Me.”  Amen!