This past Sunday as part of the Big Dreams series I posed three questions:
1. Before Christ I was….
2. In Christ I am…
3. Through Christ I am reborn to…
Thank you for giving these questions some thought. This last question begs serious reflection. What are the good works God has prepared for me?
Many of us would naturally answer this question by thinking of expressions of the faith such as attending worship services, praying regularly, studying Scripture, giving generously from our financial resources, going on mission trips, and loving our neighbors. You get the picture. These are surely among the good works God has prepared for us as activities we do as those transformed by God's grace through Christ.
The original Greek reads that God has prepared good works in advance “so that we might walk in them." No, good works were not a brand of shoes in the first century. The language of walking was used by teachers in the time of Paul to describe living or engaging in a certain lifestyle. To “walk in the ways that lead to life” was a way of vowing to live according to God’s intentions with the belief that such commitment would lead to fullness and deeper connection with God. To walk in good works is to acknowledge that the core of our life, the very essence of our identity is to be connected with the dreams that the Lord is crafting for you. Life is not constructed of isolated spiritual moments. We are not to serve God a little here and praise God a little there. God has a purpose for us that touches and captures every moment from hours at work or in the classroom or neighborhood. Our task is to realize how our many interactions and roles in life can all be used for God’s greater purpose.