Many believers hold a small view of themselves, but God is shaping, forming, and molding you into a masterpiece like no one else on earth.

Maturing in the Faith

Many believers hold a small view of themselves, but God is shaping, forming, and molding you into a masterpiece like no one else on earth. I can look back on my life now…some years ago, and remember being a new Christian and seeing just how naïve I was. I remember now and think back, “How could I have done such things?! What was I thinking?” But then I realize that I was a babe in Christ and hadn’t been off the milk of the Word for very long. I was still doing some things that were not that smart, but time has a way of maturing us all, doesn’t it? And the Word of God matures me too, but God’s Spirit takes time with us as He took His time with me. Now I think, “God is so patient with me.” I am not as patient with me as He is, but when I see new Christians in the faith doing some of the same things I used to do, I don’t say, “Wow, how could they do that?” Instead I say, “I was like that once and still have much room for growth. They’ll mature in time. Just be as patient as God was with me.”

Stiff-Necked People

God often called Ancient Israel a stiff-necked people, but what does that mean? I believe it means they didn’t look up to God in reverence and obedience, but looked horizontally, at their own human level. They neither looked down in humility confessing their sins, or upward to God, but they had necks that wouldn’t move either direction, thus they were “stiff-necked.” Now when I look at the stubbornness of ancient Israel, I don’t say, “How could they be so stubborn?” Instead, I say, “How am I like that?” As long as we are drawing breath, God is still working in us and through us. We know that God is making a masterpiece in us, but any true masterpiece takes time.

An Extreme Makeover

Remember the TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?” How about this: “Extreme Makeover: Me Edition” or “You Edition.” I have seen with my own eyes how God is doing an extreme makeover in people I know. Over the years, I’ve seen it in me, and boy do I need it, but God alone is able to tear down the strongholds that we cannot destroy, and bring down the walls of separation that out sins had created before God (Isaiah 59:2). Praise the Lord that He is able to refashion my “living room” of living for myself into the daily living room, living for Him and others. He is daily renewing my mind through prayers and His Word, so I’ll be less and less conformed to the world’s image (Rom. 12:2). I needed a heart transplant to begin, as my heart was desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9), but listen to what Ezekiel the Prophet wrote: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (36:26). It is out with the old heart of stone and carnal desires and in with the new heart of flesh and the Spirit of God. Extreme problems take extreme measures, but God can do that.

A Masterpiece in Progress

Can I take credit for any of this that He is doing in me? Absolutely not. Can a masterpiece boast of its beauty? No, because all of the credit…all of the glory of the painting belongs to the painter, not the painting. Scripture says, “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Eph. 2:10), so the fact is, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Where did this new creation come from? Paul answers, “All this is from God” (2 Cor. 5:18a), not from us but from the Master Artist.

Conclusion

Just as any masterpiece takes a lot of time and effort, so it is with us, but our Master never gives up on the masterpiece that He is working on in us. He will not be finished until we draw our very last breath or when Christ returns. Until then, God is shaping us, molding us, and forming us into the image of Christ, and that’s the high watermark for every believer. The Master Artist is doing an extreme makeover in us, but if you’ve never trusted Christ, He will be your Judge, and that ends badly my friend if you are not in the Book of Life (Rev 20:12-15), so I plead with you to put your trust in Jesus Christ. If God has never brought you to repentance and faith in Christ, put your trust in the Savior today…in fact, right now. At least do so before you die. Friends, today, right now in fact, is the very best day of salvation for you. The truth is, tomorrow may not even come for you or you may pillow your head in bed for the last time. Dying without Christ means being eternally judged and having zero chance to repent (Heb 9:27). My counsel is, trust Him today, while it’s still called “today” (2 Cor 6:2).

Here is some related reading for you: Bible Examples of God Working in the Ordinary

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: God the Potter, Holy Spirit, Masterpiece, Spirit