In various versions of the title in 1 Cor 13:7, it mentions 'Believes all things' in the KJV. Other versions of the Bible will add "believes the best for every person". In any case, whatever version of the Bible we read, when God says believing, we do know that He means only believing for the best outcome regardless because we need to see Him who is the One who can take any situation from our lives and is willing and able to make our lives far better and more highly valuable to be a blessing to others and serve His glorious purposes then we could ever expect. The major obstacle from allowing this to take place is when we doubt, speak negatively by grumbling or complaining that leads to unbelief. Jesus was not able to do the work He came to do in His hometown because of unbelief (Matt 13:58).
When I reflect on this specific passage about love (believing the best), I believe there are a number of things we can learn from this simple passage. First, when God tells us to believe the best for others, we need to first come in agreement with God for Him to do that work in our lives and others lives, because it is first His Goodness working in our lives that does bring out the best. This is what allows Gods best to be real from our lives when we come in agreement with Him to believe His best for our lives and the lives of others. We receive the best from God when we believe the best from Him for us. I often think that many people don't see the best about ourselves and of others because they don't believe that anything good can come out of our lives. We fail to see the potential God can do in our lives and the lives of others simply because we doubt and harbour unbelief for God to do His wonderful work in our lives and the lives of others. That is why complaining and murmuring before God is an abomination because we actually criticize God Himself when we should know that He is sovereign over all. He demonstrates His displeasure when the Israelites grumbled against God and Moses and God caused the land to swallow up a good majority of the Israelites (Num 16:30) because Korah and His clans provoked the Lord by grumbling and complaining.
God wants us to connect our hearts with Him and come into full agreement for His Goodness to be revealed by believing by faith because we NEED to believe He is Good. When we don't believe the best, it comes down to not believing that He truly is Good, otherwise we would believe. We need to BELIEVE His absolute Goodness and stop perceiving who God is just because of what is taking place in our lives and in the lives of many. James 5:17 tells us: "The prayer of the Righteous availeth much". The question is, how are we righteous in order for our prayers to be powerful? We become righteous when we have fully surrendered to God and we believe He is who He says He is. Abraham was declared Righteous (Rom 4:3) simply because He believed the best from God in the first place. Maybe if we were to see the best of ourselves and see the best from others, I believe we need to connect to the heart of God much more and believe the best by starting out believing His best for each of us simply because we choose to believe He is absolutely GOOD and EXCELLENT in all His Glory.
When He tells us to believe the best, we need to first believe to see His best work on our behalf and behalf of the others. We need to put a STOP by simply forsaking what is happening in our lives and the lives of others because of what we see and connect with God to believe the best and believe by faith. That is why we need to live by faith and not by what we see (2 Cor 5:7). God can do anything at anytime, but He doesn't work that way. He wants us to do our part by connecting our heart to His and believe by faith. Faith in His Goodness is what moves Him in the first place because He is a relational God and by having that relationship with us, is enriched when we believe the best from His Goodness. I realize in a much more powerful way more and more that bad circumstances occur to many lives because they expect that outcome for themselves in the first place. For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Prov 23:7), and what he believes does come to pass. Don't kid yourself, when it comes down to it, if we think we could ever be critical of God, there is always going to be something God is going to point out in our lives when we fail to live the best of our lives and fail to receive the abundant life from ourselves and others because of any part of our lives we have failed to do or believe. We will never be able to question God and think that He can never justify His actions or our outcome when it may be unfavorable. To ever think that we could question God and get away with that is utterly foolish. God tells us time again that He is pleased when we believe Him, believe who He says He is, believe what He says and believe that He can do all He tells us He can do and has done. No wonder He is not pleased when we don't have faith (Heb 11:6a). When we consider our loved ones and those we fellowship closely with, how would you like it if they did not believe you or someone you love doubts who you are or what you say, even though you have done so much for them? It's the same way with God. How can we not believe His best when He has done incredibly more for us than we could imagine. Our lives are sustained by every breath we breathe because of His Goodness towards us. We couldn't live any longer if He did not sustain our lives in any given moment in time. If/when we do have great faith in Him, it fulfills the greatest commandment of love by believing the best from Him for our lives, the best from Him for the lives of others. We have to also put a STOP of seeing ourselves of who we are by what we do, or what we have failed at and believe the best by what God can make of us. He knows how to make the best of us, but we often hinder His power to work mightily because we doubt the measure of His love for us which is that horrible deterrent that literally hinders His Spirit from doing that much needed work in our lives that we need so desperately.
Finally, when we understand that we need to believe the best from God, for Him to work His best for ourselves and for others, we need to "want and desire" for this to happen. For this desire to become more real, we need to see that everything He suffered, gave up His Throne Room above Heaven to come down to earth and suffer to the extent of willing being punished on our behalf to Redeem each of us who would simply be willing, He did this for each of us personally. When we fail to see the best of others, we need to understand that this is not the will of God, but is a devastating choice of their own to turn away from God and see their desperation by being blind to their choice to live apart from the will of God. When we see how blind the sinners are, we should always "want" to see the best for them and not see who they may be at this point in time, but who they were meant to be by being a blessed Child of God. When we do, we will be able to believe the best for others, even though we often don't see it for ourselves. Let's connect our heart to God and fulfill part of this wonderful "Law of Love" by believing the Best from God for our lives, believing Gods best for the lives of others and always having that hopeful expectation of this to come to pass. I believe we will see greater results of fulfilling this greatest commandment to become a greater reality in our lives when we truly believe His very best for our lives and the lives of others because we believe He is GOOD!
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayerhttp://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything (1 Cor 13:7) Amplified Version
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