God is Not Through With Us Yet

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Though we move into each New Year with some new plans, aspirations and even dreams, the plans of our God remain the same as He had planned them from the very beginning.  So the question is not so much about our new plans for God, but are we walking in the way God has already prepared for us. Every new day, whether it is the first day of the year, or any other day of the year, we who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal savior are called “God’s Workmanship”.  Being one of those whom God has committed specific grace to work on so that He can work through us is the greatest privilege of living this life in this world.    From day to day or year to year, the fact remains that we are new beings that are called new creations with a new position and a new expected direction as God is working on us.  Fashioned by the work of God in us so that we can be His expressions of Himself in the world we live in.  What He is in communicable attributes, such as love, mercy, forgiveness, goodness and faithfulness are expressed through the lives of those He is working in.

Created in Christ Jesus unto good works is the main focus for our existing in the world.  At its core this has to mean that life is not me, myself and I first, but God’s purpose for me is first as it relates to others around me that are to be recipients and benefactors from my existence.  Like my Lord Jesus Christ, life is not seeking first to be served, but to surrender our lives to serve others to the extent of surrendering unto Him (Matt. 20:28).  The child of God by faith must embrace this as our assignment and a life calling from God.  Redeemed and created for the works of God in this world is the clear mission of the Christian for life.

It is this  question from year to year, God what do You want to say through me?  The message is progressive because the work of God in us is producing a growing image of His Son Jesus in us (Romans 8:29).  In another place the Apostle Paul says that this process is Christ being fully developed (formed) in us (Galatian 4:19).  The person of Christ must be formed in me so that the clear message of Christ can come forth through me.   So when we think about the Potter forming us who are just lumps of clay, we must remember that the forming of the Potter begins with us on the inside (Jeremiah 18:1-5).

Prayer:  Our Father and my God, I desire to humble myself under Your mighty hand today to live under the shadow of Your grace and mercy.  I have no purpose apart from Your purpose for me, and I ask that You make that clear to me as You chose to work through me, in Jesus Name, amen.          

(by Pastor Wayne Cockrell)