Humans are wired to walk as we to go through life. We don’t crawl. We don’t have wings to fly; we don’t run like animals, we are made to walk.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
We see the pattern set by God himself when He walked in the garden and talked with Adam. The simplicity of walking, one foot in front of the other, small, sure, and consistent steps make up walking. One foot has contact with the ground while the other one is lifted off the ground and is moving in the same direction.
In order for us to have a balanced spiritual life, we must step into the unknown with the eyes of faith. We must also be grounded with the reality of life’s expectations and the commitments we have made to God and those around us ( As the saying goes, “We can’t be so heavenly minded that we are not earthly good.”). This is our spiritual walk, one foot stepping on faith while the other foot holding steady to the ground of truth!!
The scripture many times describes Jesus walking and and as He walked, He came upon various situations; calling His disciples to follow Him, ministering to the woman at the well, healing a woman with the issue of blood, and so on.
The above scripture gives us 5 important points:
1. “We are His workmanship”– Everyone is created by Him and we are created in His image. There is no partiality only unique purpose for each of us. There is no defectiveness only the process of wholeness for all of us.
2. “created in Christ Jesus”– We are hidden in Him. We have an advocate who takes care of us even when we are not aware of it. He defends us even when we are not aware of false accusations. We no longer need to try to hide our shame, guilt, or defectiveness in fear of being exposed or not loved. Jesus covers us. He tells us, “You are complete in me”. When someone rejects us, they are rejecting Jesus. We belong to Him. We are under His authority, governance, protection, and provision. We don’t have to be in survival mode and trying to protect ourselves.
3. “for good works”– The works that Jesus desires is good and it is His idea. James 1:17 tells us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. “ The gift of works also comes from above. It is not man’s idea or it would not be good, but it is divinely ordained.
4. “which He in advance prepared for us”- The Lord is in the business of preparation. He prepares the work, the worker, and the soil which we will work on. The rest is the unfolding of His prepared work for us. There is no scarcity of good works because God has allotted to us good works. We don’t need to get possessive or jealous to do God’s good works. We just need to do the good works according to His design and purpose for us.
5. “that we should walk in them.” – We get to walk in God’s work that He has prepared for us to do. We won’t fall upon it, we don’t have to fight for it, and we don’t have to strive for it. As we walk the path of life, we will come across God’s work. We may stop to embrace someone, or share a smile with someone. We may talk to someone who will give us a word of wisdom, or we encourage a hopeless person. In that process God is glorified because His workmanship is manifested through the good works that we walk into. It blesses the father, and it blesses us because we find purpose to our lives.
Is my purpose good works or is my purpose to recognize that I am His workmanship? I believe it’s both, but it starts by knowing who we are. If that is not settled, we will use works to define who we are rather than carry out God’s assignment. It’s a dangerous place because it makes us slaves to works not to the righteousness of Jesus!!
While God can do a miraculous work in our lives and change a situation in a moment of time, many of His works are done through a deliberate effort and partnership with us his children over a long period time. He shows us enough to take the next step. He gives us hope for the remainder of the journey, but always leaving room for faith to be exercised in our lives. This gives us the opportunity to grow our faith as we get to know our God and become more confident in our relationship with Him. Our walk then becomes more steady and sure as we walk through the journey of life!! Thank you Lord for walking with us as you did with Adam!!