Good Works

Ephesians 2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

James 2:14-17

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Hello, My Beloved!

I hope you are having a wonderful week. I have been spending time evaluating my life. Am I where God wants me to be? Have I been living up to His expectations. You know we spend so much time worrying about what other people think of our actions and our work, and not enough time seeking God on our actions and work. I think it goes beyond that, though. Last Sunday, my husband taught the kids on "Let your yes be yes, and you no be no." Growing up my mom use to always tell us that. I have a habit of saying "yes" with good intentions. Mainly because I want to try to do everything, and I have the intentions to do everything. The problem lies, is that everything I do, I give it my all - 110%. However, how can you give 110% for the 20 million things that you are doing? You can't. Anyways, it has this vicious cycle, for me, that I go from 110% for 20 million things to nothing. I wear myself out, and end up doing nothing. Someone once said, "If you don't tell your time where to go, it will tell you where to go." I think it was also said about money, too. So, I had good intentions to get my day started right today. Since I've started working from home, homeschooling Jesse, I haven't been able to do everything that I wanted to do. I can't even do everything that I have to do. I see first hand how this time thing can take over your life if you let it. One of the things I wanted to be able to do is exercise. It is so hard to find time to exercise. So, I told Jesse, let's go walk Shadow (our dog). I figured, the dog would get walked, I would get walked (and the much needed exercise), and Jesse would get walked. So, we walked him.When we were walking him, I noticed how stinky he was, and how dull his coat looked. Yep, a bath was long overdue for our poor pup. So, when we got home, we gave him the much needed bath. It got us drenched, so we both took baths. It wasn't until 9:00 am that I turned on my computer to start doing work. Jess got a late start on his school work as well. Then my mom shows up, and wants to take us to lunch. No problem, so we went to lunch. When the day was half done, what did I have to show for it, besides a clean dog?

This scripture indicates faith with out works is dead - what about faith with empty works? Sometimes we get so caught up in everything around us, that we forget about our true purpose. Romans 12:1 tells us, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Not that long ago, the Lord taught Chris and I a very important lesson. We are so quick to serve the Lord, and the church is so hungry for anyone to serve the Lord. We got caught up in a lot of different ministries, spreading ourselves so thin that we barely had time to have our own devotion time with the Lord. When we were so worn out tired of it all, we asked God, why are we so tired doing all of these things for you. God was simple in His reply - "I didn't ask you to do all of that." It was quite a humbling moment for us. Here we thought we were doing all of these great things for the Lord, but God never called us to do it. It is so important to serve the Lord, but it is even more important to serve Him in the areas that He called you to. Before you were even born, God had a destiny for you. He knew exactly how you were going to serve Him. Ephesians 2 indicates that we are to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. So, why are we so busy trying to do good works outside of the areas in which God has called us to do? It just wears us out to the point we don't want to do any of it. However, if we don't do the works, is our faith dead? Seek God, and see where He wants you to serve. I guarantee it is most rewarding. When life seems so difficult in your own front, it is nice to serve others and have a reality check. At the same time, when life does get difficult, and you walk through it - there always seems to be someone on the other side that is walking through the same difficult path, in which you are able to encourage. Hang in there my beloved, serve God, and persevere to the end, I just know it will be worth it!

 

May you have a blessed day!

Christina