Good Works

Don't you just love the colors of summer?  The blue sky through the green leaves, the golden irises and black-eyed Susans, the white, green and purple hydrangeas, the hummingbirds?  God is surely a master Artist.


In fact, He does all things well.   I found this in Isaiah 26:  O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works.  The Amplified has this for verse 12: Lord, you will ordain peace [God's favor and blessings, temporal and spiritual] for us, for you have also wrought in us and for us all our works.


Does this mean we have no responsibility to do the works ourselves?  It means we can do nothing apart from Him, our Lord and Maker.  Every breath comes from Him; the good things we do are a result of His power at work in us (Philippians 2:12, 13).


Paul admonished Titus to teach those who have "believed in God [to be] careful to devote themselves to good works".  Do those works save?  Only God saves.  Our works are a result of grateful hearts.  But try for one day to do nothing but good, and you'll soon see that you cannot.  We must lean on the One who did do all things perfectly on this earth, Jesus Christ.  His strength and wisdom and love and faithfulness are available to each of us.  


Ephesians 2:10 says that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  We walk in the good works already prepared.  


So, the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  He has indeed done for us all our works.  


Live by faith in Him.  Cry out to Him for power to walk well.  Repent when you do not, and trust in His mercy and love to keep moving forward.  And don't forget to look up at the beauty of the world He has made.  They declare Him and His glory to you.