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Living a life of purpose

 


Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

A few days ago I asked my children this question. ‘Why did God make you?” One said so that I can complete my mission in life, which is to share the gospel, another one said, “He made me because He wants me to succeed in life and to do well, and to be a good person and to go to heaven”, and another said, “He made me so that I can go far in life”. I found their answers very interesting because it is obvious that they know God made them for a good purpose, to do good things, to generally have a good life here on earth, and then go to heaven.

1.       We are God’s workmanship. The dictionary describes Workmanship as a skill in making things, especially in a way that makes them look good, for example, if you say that handbag was made with excellent workmanship, it is the degree of skill used in making the bag. God made us perfectly, Genesis 2:7 ‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostril the breath of life, and man became a living being.’ When God formed man, He breathed into man His Spirit and man became a living being. God made us all very unique in different ways, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, so we must never look down on ourselves saying things like my head is too big, or my neck is too small, or my eyeballs are too big we are God’s special workmanship. Psalm 139.

2.       Created in Christ Jesus. Genesis 2: 15-17 ‘then the Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die’ but Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and they ate from the tree and they died a spiritual death, they no longer had the Spirit of God living inside them, they lost all the privileges that they once had. God being a loving and caring father, began to work towards restoring man and restoring all that man had lost, and so He made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17, and Jesus Christ came because of that covenant. Abraham was the Father of the old covenant which consists of the Priest, who stood as mediator between God and Isreal, the sacrifices made with blood, the atonement, and the laws. Jesus Christ became the Father of the new covenant when He died on the cross of Calvary for our sins and shed His blood. He performed the ultimate sacrifice to cleanse us from our sins and He became the High Priest and mediator between God and man in the heavens Heb 8:1 so we no longer need a Priest to stand as a mediator between us and God here on earth. Because of Jesus’s death on the cross and His blood that was shed we were restored back to our original position, the one we lost in the garden of Eden. We now have the Spirit of God which is the Holy Spirit, we can receive eternal life, and we can fellowship with God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This means that it will be very difficult for any man who has not been created in Christ Jesus to live a life of purpose because it is only in Him that we can live a purposeful life.

3.       For good works:  When we receive Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, we become new creations so we no longer live in the way we used to live because we now live in Christ Jesus and He lives in us Romans 6:20-22 NLT ‘when you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life'. Anything that we are doing that does not lead to holiness and result in eternal life is not advancing the kingdom of God and is not good works, good works is not coming to church every Sunday, or even feeding the poor, yes they are all good but it becomes good works only if it is advancing the kingdom of God. In other words, everything that we do by God’s grace to accomplish God’s purpose is good works, anything that we do that is helping God’s kingdom is good works. So our lives should be an interconnected series of good works offered to God, from our careers to everything that we do on a daily basis, we should have this at the back of our minds “is it helping or advancing the kingdom of God?”, I like to walk backward, I want to advance God’s kingdom so what do I need to do in my business, for example, to do so. We cannot do it in our own strength, but we do it only with the help of the Holy Spirit.

4.       God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them; This is the reason why God created us. This is the answer to the question I asked my children “Why did God make you?”.  This is why God made us. Every moment of our lives and every day of our lives we should see it as an occasion for good works, to advance the kingdom of God with the help of the Holy Spirit.

 

 

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