I’ve been making to do lists most of my life.  I had to smile when my oldest daughter made her first to do list when she was about 6 years old. Evidently it runs in the family.  However, since I moved I've found it more difficult to keep on task. How do you like that excuse?  I've been settled for months and whom am I kidding anyway?  I never was very good with time management before I moved.  That's why I like to do lists. It makes me feel as if I'm somehow on top of things. Never mind that half of the things don't get crossed off.  I go in spurts of extreme productivity and then lag time of what feels like complete laziness.  I have a feeling I'll be dealing with this during my whole career as a stay at home mom.

What's my point? I have often beaten myself up over my lack of super woman qualities. What is my motivation for being super anyway? Do I have a desire to bring glory to God or myself?  Sadly it's mostly about me. I don't think my condition is anything unusual though because God chose to save us by grace and not by works. We are always thankful for that! But, the reason he gives tells the truth.  If he does it all we can't brag about any of it. God knows it's in our sinful nature to bring glory to ourselves instead of him.  He could have just decided not to mess with us because we are so self-seeking but instead he chose in mercy to devise a plan that would leave our effort out of the picture. By faith we belong to him, we can never brag about any of it.

That same passage of scripture in Ephesians 2 says that I was created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared beforehand for me to walk in. 

Hold it!  Works don't matter right? 

When I read this passage yesterday it was as if I saw for the first time all of this together the way it is supposed to be.  The very next line says THEREFORE, remember and then remember again.  It's as if the remembering is part of the good works that God prepared for me to walk in. 

So what am I supposed to remember?  I was dead in my sin; I was following the world, Satan and myself. I was destined for God's wrath, I was an outsider not a partaker of God's grace, I was apart from Christ, without hope, and without God in this world.  That is a sobering list! I never set out to have those things on my to do list but that is the reality of what I was.  Remembering what I was gives way to remembering what God did. How can I even begin to describe that in this short blog post? Just one glimpse in Ephesians 2:13 says, "But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ?"

That penetrates my heart all over again. I was brought near to God through Christ.

Remembering makes me want to be content because I realize that I don't deserve anything. Remembering makes me want to give glory to God because my works mean nothing.  Remembering makes me want to live completely for God.  Remembering makes me want to ask earnestly for more of his strength and power and to walk fearlessly through this life. Forget motivational speeches. This is the ultimate motivation.

From now on I hope to put remembering at the top of my to do list.

• Post A Comment!

Comments