This is the second message in the Skillful Living Series. Today’s topic is how to live your life as the best possible you.
Exodus 18:21 gives a description of the type of people that Moses should choose to help lead God’s people. Scripture says, “Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands.”
Moses was told to look for men who were already able to lead themselves, whose character was ready to get the most from themselves. These were men who had a natural inclination to fear God and to place themselves under someone higher than themselves. Because of that, they naturally sought the truth in all things, and they hated the idea of wanting more than what they needed.
Men such as these lived their best lives. Those were times long before we had colleges and universities. Long before we had formal education. Long before we had books and historical leaders to study. You don’t go to school to learn how to be your best self. You don’t go to school to learn how to be truthful. You don’t go to school to learn not to covet the things of others.
Where did the people who demonstrated these traits learn them? I believe they learned what was already deep within them and within others. I believe these same things are within each of us today. People decide they will live their lives against a standard of life that is objectively better than anything they can conceive for themselves.
The people Moses looked for decided to live contrary to the ways others lived. Doing this helped them to live each day as the best possible person they could be. As a result, they were recognized for the way they lived their lives. If they struggled, they struggled with the idea of being better each day.
The scripture doesn’t say these men were not sinners. We need to understand something about sin. We are all sinners. No one is any more or any less a sinner than anyone else. But being a sinner doesn’t mean we cannot be good at the things we do. Being a sinners should give us reason to want to be better than we are.
Moses was instructed to choose men who were God fearing. That is a state of mind we have toward God. Fearing God will help us learn to do God-fearing things. Do this, and you will be a better person.
Being “men of truth” means you are taught by the Truth to learn to live in the Truth. Live and accept the truth, and you will be a better person.
People who hating covetousness are satisfied with having their needs met more than by the need to satisfy all their desires. Do this, and you will be a better person for it.
When we have these three qualities of life, we will have all that we need to live skillfully as the best possible person we can be. When you learn to be the best possible, you don’t need to do something great to be seen as great.
When you are the best you can be, you will do the best that can be done. God instructed Moses to look for people who were their best selves so they would not have problems helping others discover how to be better.
What about you? Do you start each day as the best you possible?
Don’t think college or some other institution of instruction will make you a better you. Listen to the Lord as He speaks to you. He will help you learn to look within yourself to discover what keeps you from being a better person.
The Lord isn’t trying to teach the old you a new trick or to give you a new skill. You should not want the old you, and the people around you probably do not want the old you either. People who live skillfully at life listen to the Lord who tries to transform an old self into someone better by using new insights.
Start each day searching for the best you possible. Each day is a new day. You should start each new day as the best you possible.
Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 