The Life You’ve Always Wanted

Introduction

We spend a great deal of time imagining the life we've always wanted. But rarely do we stop to ask whether the life we're actually living lines up with the one we claim to want. That gap—between what we say we want and how we actually live—reveals more about us than we'd like to admit. And for the Christian, it reveals something far more urgent than preference or ambition. It reveals our theology—our view of God and life.

What Choices Tell Us

I imagine all of us, at some point, have asked ourselves what the life we've always wanted actually looks like. Maybe it's marriage, kids, a few degrees, a successful career, or a house on the beach. Maybe it's simpler than that—just happiness, whatever that means for you.

But I want to push you a little further. Don't stop at the surface. I'm not interested in the material things that come and go. What I want you to look at are the deeper things—the choices you make and what you surround yourself with.

You might be offered several job positions, yet you choose one for specific reasons—maybe because of the benefits, the location, the experience, or the culture. You might know a hundred people, yet you only choose a handful to be in your circle because of shared values or trust. These are just examples, but they point us to something worth sitting with: nearly everything we have in our lives is the result of a choice.

Now, I want to be careful here because I'm not saying that those of us walking through poverty or heartache have chosen suffering. That's not what I mean. What I mean is this—our deliberate choices reveal our desires. Our choices reflect our worldview. And most importantly, our choices reveal our theology. And that, I'd argue, tells us about the life we've always wanted far more than anything else.

The Underlying Principle

For Joel Osteen, health and wealth are everything. He sincerely believes that God wants everyone to experience happiness, success, and abundance in this life—not just the afterlife. That's exactly the premise in his bestseller Your Best Life Now. God, in Osteen's view, has designed people to become the best version of themselves, moralistically and philosophically. Osteen emphasizes the favor of God that unlocks promotions, open doors, and flourishing. He unashamedly carries the slogan of "faith over fear" and frames personal success as honoring God.

Most of us would see what's wrong with that. His vision of Heaven is less about God and more about materialistic blessing. Heaven, for him, is not just streets of gold—it's streets of gold for him. The worldview he carries is a direct reflection of what he envisions eternity to look like. It’s simply not a biblical Heaven.

And there are many who aren't so far from Osteen. They might not cling to the “health and wealth” gospel, but the underlying principle is the same one some unknowingly hold.

If you've ever listened to Osteen's messages, you won't hear a sliver of sin, hell, or repentance—nothing controversial, at least not by the world's standard. What you will hear is that God is for you, that God wants you to live abundantly, and that God wants you to be a morally good person. Morality, for Osteen, is motivational, and since God is a God of love and acceptance, he believes there is no judgment. He doesn't press doctrinal lines hard; in fact, he doesn’t at all. Rather, he leaves truth to the individual's conscience—up to the person themselves—and makes it subjective.

In doing so, Osteen decouples morality from the holiness of God, the weight of sin, and the necessity of repentance. His aim of life is completely detached from the Gospel. That is the underlying principle.

On Earth As It Is In Heaven

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray. But verse 10 is one of those lines that, I believe, most of us have repeated without ever sitting with what we're actually asking: "Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Many of us have prayed these words. Few of us have meant them.

How could we pray for His kingdom to come when we aren't even living as if He is our King? How could we pray for His will to be done when we aren't even familiar with what His will is? Why would we want for ourselves something we don't even know?

The life you are living right now is showing you the life you've always wanted, and it is also showing you the life you will have after death. Some are in the pews, some are even behind the pulpit, and yet live nothing like the Christ they profess. Their way of living is totally indicative of their theology. And theology lived out becomes eternity.

If I continue to choose sin for as long as I breathe, then that is where I will be for eternity. God, in His rightful wrath, would hand me over to my desires and place me where I've always wanted to be—away from His intimate and loving presence, away from His fellowship, and away from His communion.

But for the Christian, the life we've always wanted is not a destination. Rather, it is a Person. It is God Himself. And this is not merely about making better choices or being more disciplined. It is about knowing Him (Matthew 7:21-23). Personally. Intimately. As Lord.

To live under the Kingship of Christ does not merely mean to do good and love others. It means to be in the presence of the Lord so consistently, so deliberately, that the Spirit leads you into joyful obedience—not out of obligation, but out of love for the One you know.

To become familiar with the will of God does not merely mean to "know" Scripture. It means to be so saturated by it that your mind is renewed, your worldly desires are brought under its judgment, and your heart begins to rest in its promises. The Word becomes less of a discipline and more of a delight, and that’s because it is the voice of the One you love.

This is the difference. The world offers you your best life now. Christ offers you Himself—and in Him, life forever.

Conclusion

Until we know Christ personally as Lord, and until we have familiarized ourselves with His will, we will never see that the life we've always wanted is to be with Him forever—not as a distant King, but as the One in whom we live and move and have our being. 

The life you are living right now is telling you something. It is telling you what you desire. It is telling you what you believe. And it is telling you where you are headed. You can’t want what you don’t know. 

The question is not whether your life is speaking. The question is whether you are willing to listen—to observe whether your life points to Christ or away from Him.