Thursday, June 23
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:10 NET
Every day people work at all different tasks to achieve all different things. They might work for a prize, or approval, or a paycheck, or the satisfaction of marking something off the list. Whatever the reason for the work, there is a payoff or a finish line involved, otherwise we slip in to despair, hopelessness, or burnout.
GOD created you with a goal in mind. When He knitted you together in your mother’s womb, He had an idea that He would spend the rest of your life presenting to you. He would put people in your path to guide you to Himself, no matter what circumstances or victories. Acts 17:27 even says that God picked the time and the place where everyone would live so that they would seek after Him.
If you have never setup dominoes and knocked them down, go to the thrift store and buy some today. When you set up those dominoes, you are setting them up for a purpose, you are preparing the work in advance for them to do. All that is required of those dominoes is to stay true to what they were created and set up to do: be dominoes and fall over on your command.
You were created by the hand of God to do a good work. Just like strawberries were made to turn red in the summer, God has uniquely built you through your circumstances, your biology, your geography, and your chronogrophy to do something.
You don’t have to do it for God to get a paycheck. You don’t have to do it so God will win a prize. It’s not the last grain of sand that you hope to get on a balance to outweigh your bad deeds.
When asked by a crowd “What is the work that God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One that He has sent.” John 6:29 NIV
You were setup, you were called, you were beckoned. You are God’s workmanship, created to believe in the One that He sent. That is your good work.
And with that work done on the cross, you are able to rest, so that every other act you do will be done out of rest in Him.