Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Who am I? I am Christ's handiwork.

Who am I?  I am Christ's handiwork!  That's really something to ponder.  Knowing who I am in Christ with the identity He gives me and how He defines who I am solidifies my identity.

I am not defined by my failures or successes.  I am not defined by what others say I am or by their evaluations of my performance.  I am not even defined by who I think I am because sometimes, I don't think very highly of myself. I am defined by Christ. He gives me my identity.  I can rest in knowing that.

It's a powerful thing to know my identity.  It gives me power, confidence, belonging, and most importantly, BEING!

I am Christ's handiwork. Incredible. I've always thought of His handiwork as being in the night sky. The stars, the Milky Way, and the moon.  Glorious!  Marvelous to behold.

I am right now looking at his handiwork from my man-cave.  The Georgia pines covered in ice. The cardinals at my bird feeder on the background of ice-covered ground.  Beautiful and brilliant.

But me?  Christ's handiwork?  Comparable to the beauty of the night sky?  The beauty of gray covering the earth with ice falling from its wonder?

Yes!  I am God's handiwork through the grace of Christ.  And, I am created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do.

Isn't that what His creation does?  He created them to show forth His glory, majesty, and creative power. The sun does what it was created to do. It is to do the good work of giving light and heat to this world by giving its energy.  And the grey cloud?  It does what it's created to do - to give water to the earth making life possible on this planet.  

Only by the grace of God through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and by His life in me can I do what I am created to do.  

He gives me the ability to worship Him in truth and love.  That's what I was created to do.  

I am His handiwork to do the good works of speaking encouragement to the discouraged. To give a helping hand to the fallen.  To give the warmth of  kindness to the unkind.  To show patience to the angry.  To demonstrate love to the unloved. To point to the Way for those who have lost their way.  To share the Word of Hope to the hopeless and confused. 

I couldn't do this without God's grace and Christ living in me -  forming His image in me.  I'm not kind by nature. I am mean and snappy and still have that mean streak show up at the worst times.  By nature, I'm impatient and subject to a fit of rage here and there. It takes a while for His image to fully form in me. But, I sense it more and more.  That's His grace making me His handiwork. By nature, I'm fallen and full of my old self.  But praise the Lord, I'm a new creation.  And, I'm evolving into my new nature. It's been a long process.  This evolutionary process will continue all my life.just as the earth, God's handiwork, is still evolving.

Who am I?  I am God's handiwork created for good works.  The Master Carpenter is forming me, making me, and shaping me into the person only He can make. Praise the Lord!  All glory to Him!  I know who I am!

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