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
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