by Pastor Rod Enos
God has created us to create! Not physical matter in the way
that God does, but to create ideas, joy, encouragement, plans, projects,
teaching, crafts, interest, prayers, arts, etc. These are just a few of the
many things God has empowered us to be able to create. Creating brings
satisfaction and fulfillment for us and we have been commissioned to create to
blesses others.
We were created to create not just for yourself, but to
serve and love others. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus these words, “For we
are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)) God put it into our DNA to desire to do good
works, to create in a myriad of different ways, according to our unique
gifting, to bless others. When we fail to create, we will always feel that
there is a vacuum, something missing.
You may have thought that you are not a creative type of
person, because you don’t create works of art, but God has wired you with
creative thoughts of one kind or another. Maybe you are the kind of person that
thinks of ways to serve others, being very sensitive to their needs and
desires. Maybe you have an ability to give special gifts that may not be
expensive but very meaningful. Or, maybe your creativity is totally different
and you are a teacher and you think of new ways of presenting material so that
more of your students will be able to grasp the concepts. Maybe you are a
businessman and your thoughts are on how to develop your employees or how to
find a niche and fill it. Whether you are developing your employees and
providing a job to provide for their families, or you are using your
entrepreneurial skills to provide a needed service or commodity, you are doing good
works and you are creative.
It would be impossible in this short article to list the
myriad of ways people can be creative, but it is important to realize that all
of us were created to create and to do good works. When we realize that we will
understand that doing good works is one of the vacuums that God has placed in
us with and we’ll never be satisfied until we find our niche of doing good
works.
I like how the Message Bible puts it, “He creates each of us
by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten
ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” If we become self-focused and
fail to do the good works that we were created to do we will spend our time
trying to satisfy the God-shaped vacuum that can only be filled serving others.
To the Romans Paul writes using the analogy of a body. “In this way we are like the various parts of
a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the
other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen
people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as
a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So
since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and
marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what
we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with
each other, or trying to be something we aren't.” (Romans 12:4-6 (MSG)).
The point is, we’ll never be satisfied until we find our
place serving God by serving others in the creative gifting that God has given
us. Lord willing, I am going to begin a series in February about finding our
creative place in God’s kingdom. It is one of the things that differentiate a
follower from a fan! You were created to create!