Canvas Rhapsody

Oftentimes, even Christians forget that we do not have to work our way to heaven, and thereby exchange our peace for the heavy load of a works treadmill. God did create us for good deeds, as Ephesians 2:10 says. And as James states, a faith without good works is basically useless...yet, I see myself and others oftentimes feeling as though we have failed God in our lives because we feel that we do not "do enough", and/or that what we do is not "good enough", thereby coming even to question our own salvation.

We tend to lose sight of the rest of Eph.2:10 says that God prepared these works beforehand...we do not create them...we only walk them out as we allow ourselves to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. And to my shock and surprise, sometimes the Lord will even say "no" to doing something because either it will place us in an "overload" position, or that He wants us to be/do something else.

It is our obedience to His leading that God desires, not the "doing" of the things. Hosea 6:6 tells us that He desires obedience rather than sacrifice. While that passage reminds us to obey before having to go through repentance, etc, I believe it is also telling us that God desires our hearts most of all, not what we can "do".

God has no need of us to accomplish ANY of His work, but graciously, lovingly, mercifully allows us to work along with Him. He has no need for our worship; He iscomplete in and of Himself. Yet He bids us participate in worship so that we can experience Him, His presence, His healing, His leading, and all that commensurately abides with those things.

What is a comfort to me is that the Father knows that our minds and hearts are "leaky", that we do not need to learn new things as much as be reminded of what we already know. And that is a freeing thought. Jesus said it was for freedom that He set us free. The fact that He has done it all, before the world even began gives us "the peace that passes all comprehension, guarding our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus". What a wonderful God we have!!! He sets us, the prisoners, free!!! Then He gives us the ineffable joy of cooperating with Him in His work!