Reposted from May 2018

 

A husband spent months working on his beautiful painting for his wife’s birthday gift. He labored night and day in his little paint shop in the basement getting the colors just perfect. It was a picture of her favorite flowers only found in certain parts of the world. As he prepared for bed, after his last stroke, “Magnificent!” he exclaimed as he sighed a sound of relief. Then he closed his eyes and kissed his wife good night. He said to himself, “At last, it is finished!”

 

 

The next morning was his wife’s birthday, so he sneaked down to the basement to wrap his wife’s painting to surprise her. When he got downstairs and entered the basement, to his utter amazement, his beautiful masterpiece was ruined.

 

 

Someone painted red and blue speckles all over the painting! The green leaves were painted with blue dots and there were strange blue and red lines all over it. As he stood staring at his painting, he was overcome with anger and sadness. Suddenly, he heard little feet coming down the stairs giggling. “Daddy! Daddy! How do you like what we’ve done to your painting?” asked his little son, Jonathan. “It was Kay’s idea,” Jonathan explained. The father couldn’t say a word as he looked at his painting and reflected on the endless hours he spent creating the perfect picture for his wife. Then, he looked at the faces of the children he loved and saw their anticipation of his approval for making the painting more special than he had imagined. The husband and father stood feeling torn because of his love for his wife and the love for his little children. What was the father to say? He asked himself, “How can I teach my children about perfection, completion, and my finished work? How can I express my pleasure and displeasure without making them feel I am mad with them, I don’t love them, or I don’t like it when they try to help me out and perfect that which is already PERFECT?” And then the Father shared his heart as he will in our blog today.

 

Our Father says, “WE ARE HIS MASTERPIECE, GROWING INTO THE FULLNESS OF WHO HE CREATED US TO BE…  NOTHING WE WILL EVER DO WILL CHANGE HIS LOVE AND AFFECTION FOR US!” He longs to reveal this Truth to us and in us! We were re-created in Christ Jesus, PERFECT! But like the little children in the story, we spend so much time trying to change ourselves through fleshly efforts. We want to add to, remove from, or fix up the real us who our Father has called, “Righteous, Good Enough, and His MASTERPIECE!” We believed the lies of the world, the flesh, and the evil one, we aren’t good enough for our Father at all. They insist we must ‘Do Something’ to make our Father proud and think well of us. Religion is the greatest enemy of our soul. It uses the Bible to tell us how sinful we are, how no good we are, how much we have to do for our Father to love, accept, and be proud of us. We believe the lies and get our paintbrushes out and paint.

 

Today, I bet some of us got our paintbrushes out and painted these words somewhere on the canvas of our minds:

 

“I am too fat, too ugly, too skinny, on and on. I must change to be accepted by others, myself, and my Lord.”

 

“I didn’t spend enough time reading my Bible today… God must be disappointed with me.”

 

“I must minister for the Lord so that He can say, “Well, Done, Good and Faithful Servant!”

 

“I am afraid to talk to God because I haven’t talked to him in a while. He must be mad with me.”

 

“I must be busy doing something, even for God, so that He will be pleased with me.”

 

“I must take care of my own life and affairs, that’s what God expects.”

 

 

We can go on and on with our thoughts and feelings about how our Father thinks and feels about us, right? No matter what He tells us in His word about how He thinks and feels about us… we won’t believe Him. We refuse to listen to Him and believe what He says about us. I believe because everyone around us is believing the same lies it is easier to just go along, right? But I dare you to believe just one truth I will share today with you… just one. Here it is.

 

 Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified)

 For WE ARE His workmanship [His own masterwork, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set] so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].

 

My precious brothers and sisters, please put your paintbrushes away and behold the beautiful MASTERPIECE YOU ARE IN CHRIST! Behold His life, righteousness (good enough, acceptable) grace, love, kindness, and perfectness that is yours to enjoy now and forever!

 

Prayer: Thank you, Papa, we, Your MASTERPIECE… IS FINISHED! Cause us to lay aside everything and everyone who is keeping us from experiencing the TRUTH about who we really are In You. Amen