Nancy Taylor Tate
As I looked at my beautifully designed coffee mug saying, “I’m okay,” my eye caught the fine lines of the little pieces glued back together after the cup had fallen years ago. I smiled as I thought, that’s how we feel sometimes, glued back together.
But God doesn’t just glue us back together. He makes all things new. We are a new creation in Christ Jesus. From day to day, as we yield to Him, He is changing us.
It is encouraging that it is God who is working in us. Our lives are in His hands. He is the potter; we are the clay. As He works within, change becomes apparent in our outward behavior and way of living (Philippians 2:13; Isaiah 64:8; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Song of Solomon 8:5).
How glorious to not only live and walk in His presence, in fellowship with Him, but also to see inward change taking place in our lives. How wonderful to be a Christian, learning to walk in His ways. What peace and joy it brings as love is restored in our own lives, and we are then able to love others more freely.
The verse that comes to mind as I write is, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” Philippians 1:6.
What a promise! He not only has begun a good work in us, He will finish it! May we see His hand working in our lives. May we be thankful for the changes He brings. And may we move forward day by day in expectation of all that He will yet do.
I know of no greater joy than of being a Christian and serving the Lord today while having the assurance of being in His presence for all eternity! May you, too, find encouragement in what God has already done in your life, while you look forward to all He would yet do in the days ahead.
The verse I would like to leave you with speaks of His everlasting love for us.
“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” Jeremiah 31:3.
John speaks of Jesus not only loving His own, but of loving them unto the end.
“Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end” John 13:1.
Faithful is He who has begun a good work in us. HE will complete it! May we be encouraged, thankful, and expectant. Grateful for His everlasting love.