I took the cover image for this blog while my family and I were recently in Grand Lake, Colorado. It's an important picture to me. It's not the beauty of the moment captured that holds significant meaning to me, but it's the revelation that I had absolutely NOTHING to do with the moments of beauty and solace I was taking in and experiencing throughout the weekend. God created everything that my eyes, ears and spirit were experiencing. I just happened to be there. They were divine moments that ultimately found their depth of meaning after we returned from our trip.
As I reflected on these moments, the mind blowing truth that it pointed to was this: in my walk and pursuit of Christ, my Father in heaven is not asking me to CREATE for Him, but to ALIGN with Him. Those moments over the weekend were a picture of my life and purpose. How? God has already CREATED my path, purpose and works. It's not up to me to create it, but to experience it. This revelation released massive amounts of burden from my shoulders that I continually carry. I don't believe I'm alone in feeling the burden of needing to create opportunities, produce results, secure my future, etc. Those feelings are a lie and stand in complete opposition to the Word of God. God has PROMISED that when we were created, He also CREATED our works to be experienced through our faith in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Our burden, then, is not to try to create our works and establish our lives, but to align with our Father's will in order to walk in the works He has established. They cannot be created nor found apart from our obedience in Jesus Christ. Also, God has not left us alone to figure it all out. He has given us His Word to align ourselves with, AND the Holy Spirit to confirm that alignment.
1 Corinthians 2:9-12
9 But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
The practical application of this truth is that we need to stop allowing worry, stress and fear to overcome us. We need to take all the energy we are putting into worrying, figuring and imagining, and point it toward pursuing ALIGNMENT with our Creator. We can do this through prayer, meditating on His Word, applying His Word, seeking out council with other brothers and sisters, and worshiping Him. These actions will produce a divine peace and ultimately produce the ability to discern the will of God.
Romans 12:1-2
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We belong to a God who knows who we are, our purpose and the good works He has created for us. He simply desires that you and I intimately engage in a very real and present relationship with Him. This relational availability was of such huge importance to our Father, that He sent His only Son to die for it. Again, something we had nothing to do with. We can only receive His offer of salvation and be transformed by His Spirit as we pursue Christ.
God loves us and desires all of us to walk in the created path He has established for our lives. That's awesome, life-changing truth.