God’s still working on me
to make me what I ought to be…
Those were the words to a song I used to sing to my children when they were young. I think some of the Lord’s greatest truths are expressed in the simplest songs. As I drove to the bus stop this morning, I was pondering how great God is, how awesome He is to continue to work in my life changing me even though I can be fickle with Him some days, and how incredible He is that He does things even when we can’t see it and don’t know it. Wow God. You are beyond all words to describe.
So, I’m driving along thinking how this perfectionist thing has affected, no, infected my life over the years. Not only has it kept me back from doing things I should do, but it also affected my relationship with Him. In my subconscious I would think ‘I’m praying hard enough, the right words, often enough’- in other words perfectly, precisely what I needed to do so that the Lord would respond the way I wanted Him to- answering my prayers as I desired. Every time He didn’t do that, I eventually drew away from Him.
Ah, but I’ve been serving Him as hard as I can, doing as much as I can, loving when I don’t want to, giving when it’s difficult, sharing myself even when I’m hurting. Doesn’t that mean He’ll answer my prayers the way I want? What good is it to serve You God if I ‘never’ get what I want out of it? Of course, those words would never come out of my mouth, but they were always there at the back of my mind hidden behind the boxes of hidden sin, so He can’t see, right?! You know, I’ve been pretty unfaithful to Him over the years, my immaturity showing through loud and clear, but one truth remains.
God loves me even when I don’t deserve it. (Rom. 5:8)
and another truth that’s also so important.
God is still working on me!
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Php. 2:13
But by God's grace I am what I am, and his grace shown to me was not wasted. Instead, I worked harder than all the others-not I, of course, but God's grace that was with me. 1Cor. 15:10 ISV
I work hard and struggle to do this according to his energy that powerfully works in me. Col. 1:29 ISV
 |
| Still under construction! |
I owe Him everything: everything I was, everything I am and everything I will ever be. I don’t want to hold anything back anymore, because He never gave up on me and His work in me is new every day. He is alive, and He is working in all of our lives. How awesome that the God of the universe wants to be with us every step of the way. And He has not given up on us, He loves us and will continue to work in us as we draw nearer to Him. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you...” (Jm. 4:8) God is still working on me and I am feeling a wonderful freedom, more and more. He wants us all to be free in him. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (Jh. 8:36) We were meant to be free.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Rom. 8:28
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2Cor. 3:17 ,18