Hi Friends,
Have you ever been doing something that you thought was right but then something happens that shows you that you have been seeing things the wrong way, which helps you realize what you have been doing actually is not right? Until you saw it was wrong, you didn’t think you had to change. But afterwards you became aware that you had to go about the issue differently. Stick with me here as we read this verse:
“for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.” Php 2:13 NIV
God is always working in us. The first thing God is working on is our blindness to the truth about how we have been living our lives. I can remember before I became born again that I really thought I was an alright person. My thoughts were based on the intelligence I had gained all my years of schooling and life and they made sense to me. I felt what I felt and thought I had every reason to feel that way. I wanted all the good things that “normal” people wanted. And life should have been good…yet it was far from it. Sure on the surface, all was nice, but deep in my heart, God was working in me. I could never have put it this way then, but something was missing from MY life. Any joy I had did not last very long. And peace? I’m not even really sure I ever knew what that was. Again, in all of that, God was working in me. Have you ever sensed Him working in you too?
God is always working in us. This first, most vital work is giving us eyes to see. To see what, you ask? To see that something IS missing in our lives when we are not with God. I had always prayed to God before bedtime since I was a very young child. It always felt right, but then I would go to sleep, get up in the morning and continue on with MY life. I knew God was real, but I thought He was up in Heaven and not active in my day to day life. I also knew He was listening to my prayers and even answering some, but again, there was this space between us and so I thought I was living MY life the right way, just like everyone else lived. I worked hard throughout my schooling which gave me a good occupation. I married a good husband and had two lovely children. MY life was what I thought it should be…yet God was working in me to show me something was missing. Have you ever sensed something missing too?
God is always working in us. It wasn’t until after Beckie was diagnosed with cancer that the work God had been doing in me, all MY life, began to take on a new power. As the doctors lifted up their hands in surrender, saying there was nothing else they could do, I fell to my knees and surrendered to this work God had been doing in me, all MY life. Like scales falling from my eyes, I finally saw how blind I had been all MY life. God made me clearly aware of what had been missing all MY life. God made me aware that I was never supposed to live, any of MY life, apart from Him. God made me aware that MY life was meant to be lived with, in and through HIS Life. Did you get that? MY life was actually never meant to be mine alone, but instead it was supposed to be one with HIS Life. I had been trying to live on my own, but that is not how life is supposed to work. Only when we become aware that we have been doing something the wrong way will we seek to do it differently. This great work of God reveals the futility of trying to live apart from Him. It shows us that we have been seeing things the wrong way, that we really have been blind to what life supposed to be…and as the song goes: I once was blind but now I see! Have you ever sensed your blindness too?
God is always working in us and His first work is to help us be aware that we have been living life the wrong way. We were created by God and for God. A life apart from Him will never have steady joy, ongoing peace or deep fulfillment. It is my Hope that you can sense God working in you. Let Him show you what is missing. Let Him help you become aware that you were created to live in union with Him. Let Him change your heart and your life forevermore. Pray with me: Lord, please work in me. As challenging as life has been, I am forever grateful for God’s work in me to lead me in surrendering MY life to Jesus and starting this Abundant Life in Christ which will go on for all eternity. Do you want this life too? Then won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
