WE ARE GOD’S HANDIWORK – HIS GREAT WORK OF ART
As women, it’s often easy to forget that. We get caught up in the busy-ness of life and taking care of other people so don’t take time to stop to consider that God sees us as a cherished and valuable work of art – His one-of-a kind creation. But I am here to remind you of that, even if you don’t feel like that right now, even if you have never felt like that.
In Genesis, we learn that God created everything by speaking it into existence. He created light and dark, land and sea, and all the animals using just the power of His words. Over and over again, Scripture tells us: “He said” and it was so. Using nothing more than His voice, God created everything – everything except people. When God created people, it was personal. Genesis 2:7 says He formed us from the dust, not spoke, but formed. He took extra care when He created us. He got His hands dirty. Then He breathed His own breath into our lungs, giving us life. Why would God take such care when it came to creating human life? It’s because God created us in His image, and as the image-bearers of God, we are meant to reveal His nature to our world.
Another reason God showed such great attention to the creation of people is because it wasn’t just personal; it was also relational. God created us to be in relationship with Him and with others. When we are in close relationship with Him, His love works within us to heal and transform us — to change us to be more and more like Jesus – and His love works through us to share His healing and transformation with the world around us. Love God. Love people: this is what God commands of all of us. This is at the core of our purpose.
Our purpose – the way that we go about bringing Him glory and encouraging people to be in relationship with Him – does not look the same for everyone. God created you with a specific purpose and has given you everything you need to carry it out. He has given you a story that connects you with other people. He has given you a skill and spiritual gifts as the tools to carry out your purpose. He has given you a passion to inspire you, even when it’s hard. If you are a Christ-follower, He has sent the Holy Spirit to live inside you, empowering you to do things you can’t do without Him. If we aren’t using our story, our skill, our gifts, and our passion to fulfill our purpose, assignments God has for us will not be completed, and we will rob the people around us of what God wants to do through us.
While we have all fallen short of God’s best for us (Romans 3:23), the good news for us is that nothing we have done or will do is a surprise to God; He knows the end from the beginning. God faithful to forgive us (I John 1:9), and He can redeem even our worst mistakes. Just ask Rahab, Mary Magdalene, or the woman Jesus met at the well – women who were deeply flawed but whom Jesus used to do great things for His kingdom.
While we should not be proud of our sin or mistakes, we can allow God to use them as reminders of how much we need Him, not just for our eternal salvation, but every minute of every day because we know how much damage we can do to ourselves and others when we’re not walking with Him. We have all said and done things that we knew were wrong, but some of us have made choices that were so far from what God wanted or asked of us that we may feel like we have thrown away our chance to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. We’ve hurt God. We’ve hurt people. We’ve hurt ourselves.
When I was struggling to receive God’s forgiveness and to forgive myself for some of the things in my past, I heard a quote that really stood out to me: “When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable.” For most of my life, I didn’t know what my purpose was. I didn’t know my value and, when you don’t know the value of something, it’s easy to mistreat it or use it in a way it’s not meant to be used. Because I didn’t know the value of what God has placed inside me, I allowed myself to settle for being treated in ways that He never intended. Because I didn’t understand that God sees me as beloved, valued, chosen, and wonderful, that is not how I treated myself so I have done a lot of things that I’m not proud of – things that, for a long time, I thought disqualified me from serving God. He has shown me that, if I’m honest with Him about my hurts, my sins, and my weakness, He can use those things for His glory. I have seen Him take even the darkest, dirtiest parts of my past and use them to bring Him glory as I share His hope and healing with others.
You can think something is true, but it isn’t until that thought is challenged and survives the challenge that you believe it to be true. I knew in my head that He is a redeemer because I’d heard it since I was a kid, but it wasn’t until I experienced His redemption in my life that I came to believe it, like that deep in my spirit kind of believing. It’s because of that, that I’m able to view the painful experiences that I’ve gone through as a gift because I now know Him in ways that I never would have known Him otherwise. It’s through my brokenness and pain that God has shown me His love, His grace, and His power, as well as my purpose.
The same grace that has been so evident in my life is available to everyone who has put their faith in Jesus Christ as their savior. There is nothing any of us has done that we can’t receive forgiveness for if we ask. Jesus lived a life without sin, took the punishment for our sins by dying on the cross, and was resurrected so that we could have new life in Him.
Jesus paid much too high a price for us not to live in the fullness of what He died to give us: forgiveness, acceptance, freedom, peace, strength, and victory. Then, working in the power of everything He has given us, our purpose is to point the people around us to Jesus so that they can know Him too.
Until next time,
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