LISTEN TO THE PODCAST WHILE YOU DRIVE!:
Have you ever wondered what God was doing before He created the earth? Think about it.
God is ETERNAL.
This is one of the reasons he calls himself “I am”. He simply IS. He always has been.
Often, when we think of the word “eternal”, we think of eternal future. In other words, we know heaven will last for forever, so a “forever future” doesn’t blow our mind.
But if God is eternal, that means there was never a time He didn’t exist.
Which means, He also eternally existed in the past. There is an eternity of time existing prior til now.
The earth is somewhere as a blip on this eternal timeline of past and future.
So…what was God doing in the past?
We don’t know. All we know is earth’s history.
But, my guess:
He was likely creating things because HE’s a creator and that’s what creators do: they create.
Chew on that.
Yet, despite all we don’t know, there are several things we DO know:
1. Prior to creating the earth, He pre-planned His death for our sake:
Revelation 13:8 NIV “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”
And again: 1 Peter 1:20 NIV “He [Christ] was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for YOUR sake.”
2. Prior to creating the earth, He chose US:
Ephesians 1:4-5 NIV “For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will.”
1 Peter 1b-2a NIV – “To god’s elect…who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”
3. Prior to creating the earth, He pre-gifted us GRACE since He knew we would need it by the time we showed up:
2 Tim 1:9 NIV”He has saved us and called us to a holy life–not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.”
4. Prior to creating the earth, He Prepared an INHERITANCE for us before He made us:
Matthew 25: 34 NIV “Then the king will say to those on His right: ‘come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.'”
5. Prior to creating the earth, He prepared GOOD WORKS–that were pre-planned assignments–for us to complete on earth:
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s handiwork crated in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
This last point is the part I want to focus in on.
He has pre-planned good works for us to do.
Have you ever considered that?
That…along the timeline of our existence on earth…He has things He already planned ahead of time…since the creation of the entire world…generations and generations prior to our births…that he has ready for us specifically to complete.
Mind-boggling.
With this in mind, what should our response be?
In other words:
1. Do we automatically complete the good works just because He preplanned them?
2. Or, does it require effort?
3. How do we discover what these good works are?
Let’s answer all these questions.
1. Do we automatically complete our good works becuase God preplanned them?
Short answer: no.
The long answer (which actually answers question #2 “does it require effort”) is this:
We do not automatically complete our pre-planned good works because God does not force us into obedience to His will. He offers us freewill and ability to choose obedience or disobedience.
As such, in order to accomplish the good works He has in store for us, it requires intentional effort.
Let me show you what I mean. In order to do so, lets read a story:
Matthew 25 NIV:
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
God gave 5 bags of gold, 2 bags of gold, 1 bag of gold ACCORDING TO THEIR ABILITY.
The one with 5 bags recognized he had simply been entrusted with a gift. It was given with a purpose.
Yet, the one with 1 bag was so focused on protecting himself, he never used what had been given him.
He was afraid so he did nothing and wasted the gift of life and talents given.
God only gave the talents based upon each individual person’s ability. He isn’t asking us to do “good works” that are outside our capabilities. He didn’t ask me to go minister to the nuclearphysicists on the moon because that’s wayyyyy outside my wheelhouse. Likewise, he didn’t ask me to lead a fortune 500 company because that’s also outside my wheelhouse. He didn’t ask me to work on cars as a ministry because he knows I wouldn’t know what Im doing.
Rather, He asks us to use what has been given based upon His omniscience in regards to our actual capabilities.
After all, what use is an unused gift that we simply try to hand back to him at the end of the age?
2. Does it require effort?
.Yes, it definitely requires effort (see above).
This leads to the last question, question 3: How do we know what good works were planned ahead for us?
This can be straight forward. Or not. I’ll give you straight forward first:
Often: our “good works” meet at the intersection of our talent and our opportunities.
Let’s do a hypothetical example. Let’s say I know I’m skilled at cooking. If the local church asks me to cook each week for the ministry of those unhoused, this is likely a “good work” I may be called to complete.
My talent intersected an opportunity.
Or another example may be this. Perhaps I know I’m skilled at computers and love kids. The local high school is looking for volunteers to minister to kiddos wthout fathers at home who need to learn computer skills.
My talent intersected an opportunity.
However, there’s also the non-straight forward way we might discover our pre-planned “good works.” In this way, the Holy Spirit will often lay an impression on our heart. We might be minding our business, and all of a sudden, we feel led to do something.
This happened with me and my husband and our adoption.
It was out of the blue.
Not connected to anything else.
We received confirmation from the second person on the same day.
Yet, not all opportunities are from God, so make sure you PRAY as you seek to discern your “good works.”
The Main Takeaway Is This:
Are we reinvesting the bags (talents) that God has given us so His kingdom can expand?
You may feel ill-equipped to use your talents, but even when you don’t know how to proceed, the promise as Believers is that we have the Holy Spirit to guide us:
We have been marked by the Holy Spirit! Marked with a seal…the promised HS (Ephesians 1:13-14)
Look for these ways that He speaks and guides us to invest…
God asks us to invest:
1. talents
2. time
3. energy
4. resources
5. faithfulness
6. resiliency
7. depedence upon Him.
There will be seasons of investing without knowing the outcome of where you’ve served.
There will also be seasons of rest.
But overall, without a life poured out and surrendered to Christ, we have wasted it.
As you go about your day today, ask God which areas of your life He gave you talents that He wants you to invest in His kingdom. Ask Him to give revelation where He wants you to invest your time so you can be obedient to the good works he has called you to.
www.instagram.com/authorlizhouse
www.twitter.com/authorlizhouse
www.Facebook.com/authorlizhouse
authorlizhouse.wordpress.com
#christianpodcast #christianpodcasters #christianpodcasts #christianpodcaster #christianpodcasting #podcast #christian #christianbloggers #god #jesus #faith #growingdeeproots #growdeeproots #faithgrowth #faithinchrist #christispowerful #jesuschrist #christianauthor #christianauthorofinstagram #spiritualgrowth #generationalvoice #bibleverse #bible #christianity #holyspirit #godisgood #lifecoach #church #personaldevelopment #prayer
liz house 