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Friday, January 20, 2012

You Are the Only You

Your life is no accident, it is no fluke of nature. God thought of you long before time began. It was not by luck, chance, or coincidence–it’s for His purpose and glory that you exist. Every natural talent, personality trait, and passion you possess was given to you by God for a specific reason. As the Bible says: “For you created me in my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that fully well.” Psalm 139:13-14. God’s motive for creating you was His love. The reason for creating the world was because of you. Everything in the world was fine-tuned just to make life on earth possible. God doesn’t just show love or possess love for you–He is love! Love is the essence of God’s character. God didn’t need to create you, He had perfect fellowship and love within the Trinity. But He wanted to make you in order to express His love. This is where our identity begins, knowing that God loves us and has a plan for our lives! He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.” (James 1:18)
You are a masterpiece created by the Grand Master of the universe whose attention to detail and interest in His creation far outweigh any artist you will ever meet. The Bible states, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10, NLT). Self-help books say to look within to discover the life you were meant to live, but the key to this discovery is not looking within, but looking to God.  Once you discover who you are, it is only then that you can discover what you were meant to do. Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman captured God’s heart for us in his song “Treasure of You” which states:  ”So take a look in the mirror in the light of the truth, Oh, yes it’s true , See there’s nothing more you can say or do, God loves the way He created you!” You are a masterpiece, a divine work of art, a treasure waiting to be discovered!  One more thing we need to keep in mind concerning our identity is this:
One of the greatest lies propagated by our society is this: “You can be anything you want to be.” If God made you uniquely–the one and only you–can you really be anything you want to be? If you’re reserved in nature, can you become a public speaker? If you aren’t fast, can you become a Olympic track runner? If you don’t have an appreciation for kids, can you really become a kindergarten teacher?  Maybe, but you will have to work much harder, deal with much frustration, and perhaps be left with an incredible sense of dissatisfaction with what you’re doing. Instead, the question we should ask ourselves is this: Can I be everything God wants me to be? The answer of course is–Yes! Erik Rees, author of S.H.A.P.E. states this in regards to why we were created: “You were not created to conform. You were not created to compare. You were not created to compete. You were not created to compromise. You were created to contribute to God’s kingdom and make a significant difference with your life. You were created to just be you!” So, be the best "you" that you can be, because you’re the only "you" the world will ever see!

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