I remember one time when my brother Jimmy worked on a painting. At first he traced out the bare basics of what he would paint and then day by day he added more and more detail to the painting. Pretty soon it all came together to form a beautiful work of art. It was amazing to see how the picture evolved into a wonderful piece of art at the hands of a great artist.
Our Lord Jesus is our Master painter and we are the painting. Ephesians 2:10 says," For we are His workmanship," (or creation) "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." When a person is saved, the process of sanctification begins and it doesn't stop until the individual dies. Just as a painter daily works on his creation, so God does with us. He makes us and molds us to become more like His Son, Jesus Christ. God uses circumstances and trials to shape us into the person He wants us to be. That is the reason why we can rejoice in the midst of trials because we are being made more like Christ. However, God can only make us into the image of His Son if we let Him. If we are stubborn and constantly wanting to go our own way, then we are hindering God's work in our life. The key is to submit to the Lord and let Him do what He would have in our lives. When we get to heaven and we look back at the trials that came into our life, we will rejoice and say that it was worth it all because God used the trials to bring about something beautiful in our life.
'' And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.''- Romans 8:28
picture by Thomas Kinkade
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