A Valuable Work of Art

For some of us it’s easy to think that we are not that valuable or that what we do is not that important. We feel that others can perform certain things at a higher level: they can run faster, sing better, yield more revenues, generate more interest. Even if that is true, does that mean that we have no purpose or value?

God proposes a different conviction and approach for addressing our life: we are destined for specific and necessary accomplishments. We have a grand purpose and it is being shaped and directed daily by God himself.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. // Ephesians 2:10

God is daily sculpting and shaping us for good works—you are the recipient of God’s artistic creativity; you are God’s workmanship. He created you to do good “works.” The Greek word for “work” conveys this idea of a deed that is carried out as a result of an inner desire or purpose. That inner desire or purpose comes from God himself. This means that your actions, your works, fit into a grand and significant plan which he himself formulated. You have a place and a role to play by being who you are.

AND you can’t really mess it up. Why? Because part of that passage says, “created in Christ Jesus.” This is the “no fault” zone that God has permanently placed us in. When we perform really well, he sees us as his perfect son, Jesus. When we don’t perform up to our level of ability or really mess up, God still sees us as his perfect son, Jesus. Our identity is fixed. What this is meant to do is free us up to try like crazy and be less reluctant to fail. Because there will be failures, but failures are just steps toward learning what our real capacity is in Christ, our real purpose. Basically, you can’t mess this up, so get out there and try, try again.

Then let’s add the icing to the cake: “which God prepared in advance for us to do.” He already has made these good works ready because he prepared them. They are made ready in advance. They are sitting on the shelf, ready for us to take them and run with them and develop them and use them. You find this in the things to which you are naturally inclined. Maybe you are a history buff and just love poring through historical facts and connections. God prepared you to love that type of information. Use it; share it; teach it. Maybe you have a real connection to working with your hands: landscaping, gardening, creating, building. God hardwired you that way and you have the freedom to walk in it. Go and discover who you already are; it’s incredibly freeing to know that you have a specific place and a specific role to fill and the pattern is already laid out in your personality and your gift set.

So live today knowing that God is working in you already, and you have a purpose sculpted by his perfect hands and designed by his perfect intentions. That makes you valuable; he has impressed a part of himself on you!

Pastor Al