I am a finished product in progress.
"Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." NKJV
"And I am certain that God, who began a good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." JCB
This affirmation has me puzzling over the word choices the author made in writing it. How can I be finished yet still in progress? A finished product is finished, isn't it?
Maybe these words were chosen to get the reader thinking about who God predestined me, all of us, to be.
Okay. So, this begs the question: who would I be if sin hadn't clouded the truth? What would my choices have been if they had been based on Godly love for others and myself?
Maybe I'd better stop right there. Playing the "what if's" is a dangerous game. It steals joy. It steals peace. It steals grace.
It's much better to think about all the victories, all the life events and choices Jesus has redeemed. It's much better to think about how I've grown and changed. It's much better to think about the journey of discovery, of finding out more about my Saviour and in doing so, uncovering God's truth about everything.
Well, maybe not everything. There is still much that remains a mystery.
:)
Oh, how I enjoy puzzle solving! Thank You, Lord, for making that a part of who I am!
As an aside, I shared yesterday with my readers about how the crickets were triggering me because they are so loud this year. I talked to a friend about my concerns. They had noted as well that the crickets were unusually abundant compared to the last couple of summers. It was good to know they found them excessively noisy, too!
What relief because this means I am doing okay. It's the bugs that need to tone it down! :D
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The Robes
"Coming up behind Jesus, she (the woman who had bled for 12 years) touched the fringe of His robe." Luke 9:44 And she was heal...
I think you touch on the answer to your own question. God has designed us each to be a certain person, and that design is finished, perfect. But we haven't completely grown into that perfect design because of our inherent sinful nature, so our design is still somewhat unfulfilled. As Paul writes to the Phillipians, when Jesus returns, all will be fulfilled and our transformation into the finished product will be finished.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the image of a flower will help. The type of plant determines the characteristics of the flower (like God determining our characteristics?), but the flower starts as a bud that doesn't resemble the flower in full bloom at all. Sunshine, water, and time, and the bud grows. The final open bloom might be like when Christ returns, and we are complete in whatever way the design has determined. The flower has held within it the destiny of what it would become, as we do.
God bless your puzzle solving search!