[Jesus said,] My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
John 10:10, NLT
Trying harder won’t make life full, rich, and satisfying. Jesus said that’s what he came to earth to do. We need to let the Holy Spirit live in us and let him do it.
You don’t need to pretend to be someone you’re not. When you stand before God at the end of your life, he won’t ask you if you were Moses, or Esther, or Billy Graham, or Mother Teresa. He will ask you if you were the person that he designed you to be.
Addicted followers of HGTV ooh and aah when they compare the before to the after. Lucky home owners say, “I can’t believe it’s the same house.” Preening designers tell you that all you need to do is capitalize on the structure and framework that you have and show it to its best advantage. Your house becomes more functional, more beautiful, more like what it was built to be.
God made you.
“You are not your handiwork; your life is not your project. Your life is God’s project. God thought you up, and he knows what you were intended to be. He has many good works for you to do (Ephesians 2:10), but they’re not a to-do list. They are signposts to your true self.”2
“You are not your handiwork; your life is not your project. Your life is God’s project. God thought you up, and he knows what you were intended to be. He has many good works for you to do (Ephesians 2:10), but they’re not a to-do list. They are signposts to your true self.”
John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), pg 14
How is your spiritual life going?
- Look around. What spills out of you?
- Is the splash caustic or cleansing, overwhelming or refreshing?
- If we are full of the Spirit, what do you think will overflow?
And that Spirit overflow will be uniquely yours.
And when the Spirit of God flows in you, he gives you the power to be the person you were designed to be. You are unique, one of a kind, God-made.
Pray John Whittier’s prayer with me: (The Divine Hours, Prayers for Summertime, by Phyllis Tickle)
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Re-clothe us in our rightful mind;
in purer lives your service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.
Drop your still dews of quietness till all our strivings cease.
Take from our lives the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of your peace.
Amen.
Kathleen S Evenhouse 