March 12 - We Are God's Workmanship

Today's Reading:
1 Chronicles 16:37-18:17
Ephesians 2:1-22
Psalm 107:33-43 
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Focus Verses:
Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Insight:
By his grace, God is saving all of us who are being made alive in Christ. His great power—the same great power he demonstrated in raising Jesus from the dead—is at work in our lives. Our lives are a demonstration of God's grace and power as he creates, shapes and forms us in Christ to do the good things he has in mind for us to do.

Response and Action:
I want to be transformed by God's grace—to know and experience the power and truth of Christ more each day. I want to do the good things God has planned for me, and I want God to prepare me to do them. I will study and meditate up on the Scriptures. I will pray and yield my heart and will to God. I will give thought and care to my choices, actions, and attitudes. I will in all things seek to follow Christ, honor God, and walk in truth.

O God. Thank you for saving me by your grace. Do not let the world squeeze me into it's mold, instead, transform me by the renewing of my mind. Show me your good, perfect, and pleasing will and strengthen me to live in it. Help me to be a good steward of all you have given me. Grant me the will and wisdom to guard my heart, feed my spirit, stimulate my mind, care for my body, and diligently do the good work you have laid before me. Amen.

Spiritual Formation Verses: 
Philippians 3:12b-14 
12b Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Resources:
Courage and Calling: Embracing Your God-Given Potential
by Gordon T. Smith