I Am His Masterpiece

Many times throughout my life I have compared myself to others and have judged myself “not enough.” I think a lot of us are guilty of this. We see someone else’s talents and believe ours are so much less. 

Recently the Lord reminded me that he has given me what I need to fulfill what He has assigned me to do. I don’t need someone else’s voice or someone else’s abilities. I have what God has given me. He has assured me He can use my voice and my gifts to accomplish His will through my life. 

If you’re struggling with the fear of not being enough, let me encourage you. God knew what He was doing when He created you. He didn’t get it wrong. After all, He is the Master! Trust Him to help you be the person He created you to be! 

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For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10-NLT)

God's Great Love!

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1)

I love that word—lavished! God has covered us with His love! He has freely poured out his love upon us!

 

Lavish means “to bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities.” In my imagination, I see myself completely covered and swimming in God’s love!

That’s the kind of God I serve. He loves us so much that He gave the greatest gift—His one and only Son to die for us. He has given us new life that we could live a full life now and then live forever with Him!

The world is looking for love—most of the time in the wrong places. God has granted the gift of His love, which is greater than any other love we will ever encounter. All we have to do is reach out and accept it from Him!

Father, thank You for Your great love that You have lavished upon us through Jesus Christ Your Son! 

Are You Ready for Eternity?

I was contemplating life the other day—and death. As I get older, the subject of death seems to enter my thoughts more. Not in a morbid way. Just a realization that it really is going to happen—even to me.

We all experience the loss of loved ones as they leave this earthly life and step into eternity. It is a part of our existence that we cannot escape. My first experience of losing someone really close was when my first husband went to heaven. Death became starkly real in a way I had never experienced before. 

Though thinking about death can be unpleasant, it is something to which we should give attention, no matter our age. God, being omniscient, knows when each of us will leave this world. We don’t.  

There are important decisions to be made before our last moment arrives. We need to make preparations for the family we leave behind. But more importantly, spiritual preparation needs to be made to ensure that we attain eternal life.

Heaven and Hell are real places. And what you decide in the here and now will determine where you go when you die. Your decision should not be put off into a future that you may not have.

The Word of God tells us that becoming a follower of Jesus is the only way to eternal life. Please choose to make Jesus the Lord of your life while you still have the opportunity!

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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (1 John 5:11)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

A Strong God Who Never Fails

In 2009 the Lord led me to create this blog site, and at the beginning I posted often. Later I didn’t write as much and there are significant gaps of time between my posts. At one point I decided to take the dates off of the articles so that the gaps would be less evident, being somewhat ashamed that I had allowed it to happen. 

Taking another look at the circumstances, I realize that during those gaps I was living my life and going through some hard times that were not conducive to writing. I processed the events of my life privately, rather than putting all of my thoughts out there for the world to see. 

I lived through my first husband’s battle with cancer and his death and the resulting grief and pain. I was a single parent to my daughter as she completed high school and went on to college. After moving to another state for a new job, I went through my own fight with cancer—and the depression that followed. The losses of three of my family members—my Dad, my baby brother, and my Mom—in a little over two years were heartbreaking. Thankfully, there have also been good times as God brought new love and a new marriage into my life.

Even as you trust God, you still have to walk through hard times. And you do what you have to do. You put one foot in front of the other and keep going. You grit your teeth and live through each day. Sometimes as you look back on the difficulties you realize how hard those times really were, and you find yourself wondering how you made it. It is then that your eyes are opened to the miracles of God that brought you through. 

I’ve added the dates back to my blog posts. The gaps are me being real and admitting I have struggled. Some people have told me I am a strong woman. I don’t see myself as strong. But I do serve a strong God who never fails me!

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When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. (Isaiah 43:2)

Living the New Life

"Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God” (Matthew 3:8). This scripture emphasizes the “turning away” from sins and the “turning to” God. This is repentance—a change of heart, a change of direction. After a person truly accepts Christ’s salvation, there is a definite transformation in that person’s life. Other people can see the difference—the move from the old life to a new one. You have become a different person. This is not something you do; Jesus does it. “The old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

The old way of life, the old way of thinking, is done away with, and there is a new life within you. But after our transformation we are not to have a lazy “let Jesus do it” attitude. After salvation comes living out the new life—allowing the new nature to be in control, and not letting the old nature take over again (see Ephesians 4:22-24). Diligence to intentionally live this new way is important, as our enemy does not give up and our flesh still wants its own way. 

This is an “every moment of every day” endeavor. You may say, “That’s too hard. That takes too much effort. I don’t have the self-discipline for that kind of life.” In ourselves, we don’t. The Word says, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). This is where we need to lean on the Lord. Our relationship with Him is to be cultivated daily. We humbly ask Him to lead us onto the paths He desires us to walk. 

Remember, the new life within creates a hunger for a close relationship with God. After becoming a believer our desires change and we don’t want to keep living the way we were before. Time previously spent in the pursuit of our own agenda is now devoted to prayer and Bible reading so that we can grow in our relationship with the Lord. He desires to live in a continual relationship with us. One name for Jesus is Immanuel, meaning “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). 

Sometimes people think of all this only as it relates to the future: “I want salvation so I can go to heaven when I die.” But this life of being a believer is a “now” life. We can have peace with God, a “right now” relationship with Him that helps us through each day and changes us into people who care about others and who desire to bring them to the Light of the Gospel. 

My prayer is that God will teach me afresh how to live the new life He has placed within me. I often pray these words from one of my favorite hymns: Let my life be a light shining out through the night. May I help struggling ones to the fold, spreading cheer everywhere to the sad and the lone. Let my life be a light to some soul.*

*Let My Life Be a Light, J. R. Varner, 1942

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You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)