We Are Created For Good Works

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/2gor9c

Most people believe that God created the world, the universe and everything in them. Genesis 1:31 says, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” In this amazing and complex world everything God made has a purpose. The sun provides our sunlight. The moon controls our tides. God created bodies for us that are marvelous. They contain the means of healing wounds, fighting infections and replacing old cells with new cells. Truly everything God has made has a purpose.

But not only has God provided for our physical needs in this world. He has also provided for our spiritual and emotional needs as well. With His infinite wisdom, God has prepared a network of others to join forces with us on our earthly journey. Paul describes this as a body in 1 Corinthians 12:12. “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” In verse 26 he says, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”

Isn’t that a wonderful thought to consider? God has created everything in the world with a purpose. And He created the church, the body of Christ, to be a means of giving support to one another on earth.

Listen to the way Paul expands on this in Ephesians 2:1-10.

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We have been made alive, created for a God-given purpose—to do good works for our Lord! These works are present in the world today. They include not only taking the gospel to a lost and dying world, but also include taking care of one another.

Paul places special emphasis on the individual’s role in the body in Ephesians 4:16. “From whom the whole body, joined together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” Did you notice that Paul says growth comes by means of every part doing its share? Friends, we have been created with a purpose in mind. That includes doing good works for our Lord.

The task of each one doing his or her share can not be accomplished until we each realize that everyone has a purpose. If our heart or lungs decided to not do what they were created to do, we would die. In a similar fashion, if as parts of the body of Christ, we decide to not perform the works that we were created to do, the whole body suffers.

Consider these words from Hebrews 10:23-25.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Friends, everything God created has a purpose and that includes us. In the body of Christ we are each created for good works and the growth of the body depends on each one of us doing our share. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:11, “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we look for opportunities to lift the spirits of others as we interact with them. May we end each day knowing that we have done what we could for the glory of God.

Our thought for the day: “Superior to a kind thought is a kind word; better than both is a kind deed.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.