JDL - Direction Fifty-two - Created for a purpose, Redeemed for a purpose

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV))

We have talked about being chosen for a purpose, the purpose of doing the good works which God has created in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10). Of course, we understand that this flows out of the fact that we are saved by God’s grace through faith alone, so that this is a gift of God, not by works so that we may not boast (Eph. 2:8-9). Thus, even our good works have their beginning with God doing the planning, initiating and working in and through us.

Let us take a moment and go back to the beginning, Genesis. In the beginning God created. He created the man and the woman for a purpose. The purpose He created human beings is to love them. God the Father typifies human parents in that human parents do not have children in order to be served by them. Children do not serve their parents. Rather parents have children in order to do for them, in order to love them, care for them, and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Likewise, our Lord, God the Father, created us to love us, care for us and bring us up in His nurture and admonition.

Thus, we might rightly divide these two things: God created us for a purpose to love us and God redeemed us for a purpose to do the good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do. Yet, did you notice that in both these instances, according to the order of creation and according to the order of redemption, the focus is, as always, on what the Lord is doing. He is the one initiating. He is the one doing. We are the ones being done to. We are the ones being given to. We are the ones benefitting from all that He has to give to us.

I remember as a child, at Christmas time, Dad would give us each about five dollars to go and buy Christmas presents. Notice, Dad would give us money to buy a present for him and for our mom. And how excited they would be when they opened their present. I never thought about it, but why could he have not purchase his own present, what he wanted, then wrapped it and put his name on it? How absurd for me to believe that this was something I was doing for him. He gave me the money, took me to the store, and brought me home so that I could buy something for him. Really, I was doing nothing. At the same time, I began learning about thinking of others, giving to others and the joy of watching others open presents.

Here again, God works with us the same way. He picks us up, the worst of sinners, beggars on the street. He cleans us up. He washes us, puts new clothes on us. He sets us before His banqueting table. He puts a fork in our hand. How absurd it would be for us to sit at the table, take the fork to our mouths and say, “Look God; look at what I am doing; look what I chose to do.”

What great love our Lord has for us that He is so patient with us. What great love our Lord pours out on us in that He is the initiator, the prime mover, the first giver, and even more, that He moves in us to be able to give back as He has first given to us. And in this giving back, we are made to feel very special as if we are actually doing something. What great love the Father has and continues to lavish on us as Jesus directs our lives.

Think About
What does God need from us? What do we really have to give to Him (that did not in one way or another first come from Him)?

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me faith, forgiveness and life. Forgive us when we arrogantly think that we had anything to do in garnering the gifts and blessings You have given to us. Help us always to be mindful of and thankful for all that You have given to us, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.