....art

Do you ever wake up and wonder if you are where God wants you? Do you ever wonder if you are really following God's plan for your life? These are normal questions and ought to be asked by every true believer in Jesus Christ. We should desire to follow His plan; and the only way to know is to ask, listen for direction, and obediently follow.

The most important part of God's plan is that we trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin; "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" 2 Peter 3:9. God wants us all to repent, turn to Jesus, and receive His gift of Salvation. He wants us to step from eternal death to eternal life through faith in His one and only Son!

But many people receive His gift and then continue life with no real change, no new direction. This should not be! When we receive God's gift of Salvation, something wonderful occurs; "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17. When we place our life in His hands, He wipes away the ugliness of our sin and begins to grow and mature us into the likeness of His Son Romans 8:29. This process of maturing growth IS His plan!

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

When we become a new creation in Christ, we become God's workmanship. The Greek word for workmanship is "poiema" - it's where we get the word poem. And though it might be difficult to think of our life as a poem, the idea being presented is that God is creating something beautiful, something almost poetic which touches His heart.

It might be easier to switch analogies and think of God as the Master Painter. When we give Him our life, we hand Him our old canvas covered with the grotesque ugliness of sin. But by grace, the canvas is wiped clean, and the Artist begins to paint a work of art with Jesus as the model. Every stroke of His brush is to make our canvas look more and more like Christ.

Are we where God wants us? Are we following His plan? To help find the answer we should ask: Is the likeness of Christ beginning to form, or is my canvas still filled with ugliness and confusion? Am I allowing Him to paint, or am I trying to take the brush at every opportunity?

God really is the Master Painter, and He really does know what He is doing. If we will allow Him to finish His work, the end result will be better than anything we can imagine!! Let's give Him our canvas and allow Him to paint. 

Let's follow His plan and allow our life to become His work of art.

- steve troxel