My wife and I love to get out in the evenings and drive around our area. We kind of take the same path about every time. In fact, we do take the same path every time. Some people take long walks on the beach, and without a beach, we take a car. On our travels we notice the same houses and how they change or stay the same. It's really kind of fun, since it doesn't take a lot to amuse us....
Going by one particular house a few months ago we noticed they were out there scraping and preparing the wood for painting. You could just tell it was going to make a huge difference in the look of the house, and we were anticipating the new look as we noticed their progress in scraping the old paint off the house. But, we went by the house this week and I told my wife, I wonder why they haven't painted that house yet? They did such a good job scraping it, but they didn't complete the job. Now, don't get the idea we are going around critiquing every one's house, and we are coming to an area near you. Cause that is not what it happening. We just notice and get encouraged by the effort of trying to improve their property.
But the question remains, "Why take all the time to scrape and prepare the wood for repainting and then not paint it?" It could be many different things like lack of funds for paint, can't pick a color, some more damage they haven't repaired yet, or other various things that would delay the process from being completed. But the end result is this; the house is not painted!!
In our life as a believer we have those moments too, don't we? We start something and the future looks so good and bright and then we bog down and put off the next move and it goes uncompleted. Soon the effort loses ground to procrastination and the putting off becomes a curse to the whole thing because we didn't finish strong. So, the great plans are stopped in the process and what seemed so good and exciting dies...What a terrible death. I have seen things that needed changing and said the words, "We ought to..." Then we look at all that is involved and we let our lack of faith and followthrough kill the great and mighty plans for improvement. Paul in writing to the church at Ephesus was very pointed in making sure they were going to follow the process of growing and reaching others for Christ. In Ephesians 2:20-22 he says,"Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." God, of course, is really good at finishing things, including the forming of the earth, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus, rebuilding the temple, and, of course, finishing the life changing process of growing us into who He wants us to be. Paul speaks also to this process in Philippians 1:6 "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." How could Paul have such confidence in knowing that the process of growing us to completion would be done? Because he had seen the house finished in all it's glory in his life and the life of others who came to follow The Way. In his travels he saw the unfinished part of the process and then he also saw the painted part of the process of those who were walking with God. House completed!! In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul wrote, "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."
So, how's the work going? Have you scraped off the old and are you allowing God to repaint your life with the new. If not, you are keeping Him from doing all He wants to do in your life and it just doesn't look right!! Time to get into God's Word and let the process move on to completion. If you will bend, God will finish the process and you will show a great progress in your walk with God. The results will be fantastic and inspiring to yourself and others. Wow!!! Now that's the kind of life that makes an impact. Keep on looking ahead, God has some great things he is doing in the rebuilding of your life in Christ. He has His heavenly paint brush in His hand and His brush strokes really make things look awesome!!
The Pilgrimage continues..
David Warren
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