Trusting God with our lives means we must place our faith in him, but it means something else as well. It means acknowledging him as Lord. God, the Master Mind has a Master Plan for our lives, but before that plan can be fully realized, we must learn to acknowledge him as our Master.
This is the greatest lesson that God has graciously and painfully allowed me to learn. It’s easy to call Jesus “Lord.” It’s another thing altogether to allow him to become Lord. Jesus himself spoke of this struggle when he said, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Luke 7:23)
It is very easy to be offended by God. Only those with the most shallow and superficial relationships with God are never offended by him.
Think about your closest relationships in life: mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, children, best friends. If you are like me, all these people have done and said things that, at times, offended you. This is natural as we engage in the hard work of building healthy relationships.
It is inevitable that in a real and growing relationship with God, we will be offended by what he does or, more often, does not do in our lives. But it is only through this process that we learn that the Creator is also the Master, and in order to become his Masterpieces, we must accept this truth.
One of the reasons I chose the metaphor of God as the Divine Artist for my book, “Masterpiece in the Making,” is because it’s hard to “see” what great artists see all along. From the beginning of their artwork, they are able to see the finished product.
Unlike us, God is able to see the finished product of our lives while we are still a work-in-progress. But unlike the canvas, clay, or stone, we are not passive in the process of becoming masterpieces.
You and I play a vital role in becoming the masterpieces into which God is shaping us. We must submit our lives to the Master. Actively trusting God through all the circumstances of our lives, we continually confess that He knows what is best for us and that He is using even the most painful experiences to shape us into the men and women He is calling us to be.
This is a humbling experience because it demands that we get over those things that God does or does not do in our lives. To put it another way: God’s plans versus my plans. We must trust God to make all things beautiful in his time and his way.
Jesus is Lord. More than a confession of faith, these words are an act of trust and submission.
In Christ,
Dan
Thank you Ptr. Dan for the encouragement.