As we embark upon another year, it is important to reflect upon the past year and then ponder the kind of life we want to live in 2013. How did you do in 2012? Some may have had tough situations that were out of their control such as a family illness or job loss. Situations such as these caused you to spend a lot of time in a certain area which wasn’t your first choice. For the rest of us, we had 365 days of opportunity to live our lives. We made many choices on how we spent our time, energy, emotions, thoughts, money, and talents. I hope as you look back you are pretty pleased on how you spent your time. For those of us who have room for improvement, let’s look at a passage of scripture that should sum up our lives as we look ahead to 2013!!
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10
Grace is the foundation of our lives. With God’s grace and mercy we entered His kingdom, and we will continue to need His grace to live on this earth and represent Him well. Regardless of how well we know the Bible, how long we have walked with God, or the ministry position we hold, we will continue to be in desperate need of His grace to carry us through life journey. We will make mistakes, have misunderstandings, mistreat others, be unloving, and we will need His grace to cover our sin and redeem the bad situations. No one can boast of God’s grace because it is freely given, and no one can boast they are done needing it!! That should keep us in a humble position towards people, the saved and the unsaved.
If we move into the New Year with that humble estimation of ourselves, we are in a much better position to live out the rest of the scripture (v 10). We are His workmanship. We didn’t create ourselves. God created us, and so He will unfold His purpose and plan for our lives. God creates people and things intentionally and for a purpose (see Genesis 1).
Sometimes we may not know what our purpose is, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a purpose. It just means that we don’t know. There are a lot of things we don’t know. What we should be more concerned about is to know Him. The more we know Him the more we understand His plan for humanity and His heart for people.
The above scripture says,”created in Christ Jesus”. That to me looks like a woman pregnant with a baby. The woman carries that baby in her womb with the hope and expectation that the baby is born one day and the child will have his/her own unique and individual life. The parents can enjoy seeing this child grow into adulthood and become a mature, loving, and responsible person. We were created in Christ Jesus with a hope and expectation as well. Then the scripture says, “for good works”. I was created by Him and for Him. I was created to know Jesus and out of that relationship my purpose is to do good works.
Why do we need to do good works?
After the fall, the world became full of sin, darkness, and self-perseveration which doesn’t represent the Lord well. People live self-absorbed lives, as believers we are called to do good works by being self-sacrificial, being truthful, and loving, so we can be a light in a dark world. This will help people understand and know that there is a God, who is good, loving, and faithful. With a saving knowledge of God through Jesus, people can be freed from their own darkness.
Lastly, the good works that God has for us is not something we need to conjure up and strive to do. The scripture tells us that the works were already in God’s mind from beforehand. He has prepared them and ordained them. We don’t have to worry about not doing enough, or not knowing what those works are. We just need to posture ourselves in a place of humility, availability, and obedience, and the rest He will unfold before our eyes. That makes the journey exciting. It takes away the unnecessary burden and responsibility to try to figure out what we need to do, and it keeps us focused on just loving our father. This puts us in a position of knowing when He asks us to do something we are willing to do it.
Some good works will be exciting and fun such as leading someone to Christ; others will require dying to self, such as loving an unlovable person. Regardless of what He asks us to do, whether the world considers it important, valuable, and exciting or not, He considers it good works, and that’s all that matters!!