What Were You Created For?

I was reminded of a  truth I needed to hear again in the sermon this week.  The verses come from Exodus 31 where God tells Moses that He has appointed a man named Bezalel to be the craftsman who will make all the things they will need for the tent of meeting.   In verse 3 God says He has,” filled him with God’s Spirit, with wisdom, understanding, and ability in every craft.” Then in verse 6 it says,” I have placed wisdom within every skilled craftsman in order to make all that I have commanded you.”

As I listened, I heard the words carve wood, and I leaned over to my husband, Randy, and said, “so you, as a woodworker, can be assured that God has also given you wisdom and ability in your craft.”  We smiled at each other and went back to the sermon.

Later, I was thinking about this again and remembered a devotion I wrote several years ago called, The Master Craftsman, where I talked about how God was the master and He would craft our lives into something beautiful if we allowed him.

Then I went on to think about my own calling.  Sometimes what we feel called to do and what it looks like when we actually put it into practice can be puzzling. We think we know what we’re supposed to be doing but why don’t we see the results we imagined when we began?

Right now Randy is wrestling with how his illness will effect the dreams and plans we’ve talked about for years.  What keeps him motivated to continue when it appears that he might not have time to complete it all?  What keeps any of us motivated to keep going when it doesn’t look like we think it should?

The motivating factor has to be the truth that we gain from scripture.  Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.”

If He prepared the good works ahead of time, how can we “run out of time” before we accomplish them?  The only way that will happen is if we flat out choose NOT to try in the first place.

If all things work together for our good (Romans 8:28) then what looks like setbacks to us really aren’t.  So Randy’s illness, or my years of depression, or your (________________________________) fill in the blank, can do nothing to stop the good works that God has planned for us.  We just need to keep going.

If we woke up this morning then there is still something for us to do to bring God glory. If we don’t wake up tomorrow then we’re done and can spend eternity with Him!  What can be better than that?