Weekly Devotional 2-10-14 What Work Has God Purposed For You, For Me?
Ephesians 2:10 ( NKJV ) “10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”. What an illumination of divine truth!
God’s purpose for the Christian is that he or she does good works. What a wonder! But that is not the end of the story. We didn’t start off that way nor did we become that way by self-effort or promotion. In truth, as we look back into the passage we find that something miraculous took place in us.
Paul, the human author of Ephesians, began chapter two of God’s message to the Ephesians by writing; “1And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Ephesians 2:1-3 NKJV). You and I were dead toward God. We lived according to the desires of our carnal natures, natures that promoted self above all others including our Creator. Our natures were open to the suggestions of the prince of the power of the air, Satan. Even if we had been born into a Christian, God loving home, we were still dead toward Him until He moved in our heart to bring about the aforementioned miraculous change. When once we loved and served self, we then began to love and serve God.
We were “born again spiritually” (John 3:1-8). We had a re-awakening in our inward man, our spiritual natures toward God, and became aware that it is to God that we owe our all. As we read that passage we find that it was God’s Spirit who opened the door of our understanding and birthed in us a desire to love and serve God. In other words, being reborn spiritually was being reborn from above. It was God’s workmanship in us.
As we look back to Paul’s recital of Ephesians chapter 2 we find him confirming this truth. He wrote, “8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, lest anyone should boast”. Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, confirms that our spiritual rebirth was by God’s grace, His unmerited favor. We had no part in it.
But now back to Ephesians 2:10, “10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Doesn’t God through Paul write that we have been recreated anew in our spiritual natures for good works, and that God has set aside certain works that He has purposed for us to do? We can only answer yes. The natural question then is what are the works that He has prepared for us? Certainly there is a commonality of works that is to be done by the whole of the church, but He does call each one of us to particular tasks. What He has ordained for one may not be what He has ordained for another. For good purpose God has given each of us different experiences of life and certainly it is through those experiences, when turned to glorifying Him, that He will assign our individual work.
When truly surrendered to the leading of the Holy Spirit there should not be a question of what God would have us do. Honoring and glorifying Him in whatever situation we find ourselves is the work He has set for us.
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Transforming Power: The Work of God on Behalf of Man