God Gives the Power to do Good Works – J. D. Greear
| As a child of God, you are chosen—according to the purpose of God, by the power of God, for the glory of God. And that is the greatest, most empowering, most life-giving truth in the universe. Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (ESV). God predestined that your life would be filled with good works, to the praise of his glory. That means that the burden of “fixing” your life is not on you. God has already decreed and supplied the power for it! Many people feel so defeated, thinking they have to summon the will to overcome a particular sin or heal their marriage or be a bold witness for the gospel. But that’s the wrong picture of the Christian life. God has already provided the power for you to do the good works he planned for you. You can be confident in his plan to use you, because Jesus said that’s why he chose you: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” (John 15:16). The Bible teaches that you are chosen, not to unravel the mysteries of how God has worked in your past but to give you confidence of what God wants to do in your future. When you think you’ve failed miserably as a Christian—and you will sometimes—you can have the strength to get up. Proverbs 24:16 says, “The righteous falls seven times and rises again.” If you are discouraged by how much you fall, remember that the righteous person shows their righteousness not by never falling but by getting back up. Falling just demonstrates that you are not perfect. Getting back up when you fall demonstrates that you believe the gospel. |