Created to do good

"For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works in which God prepared in advance for us to do."-- Ephesians 2:10    

   A very hard week for me was the week that my husband left from the going away ceremony to train at Camp Atterbury, Indiana; before flying out of country to where he would spend the next year of our lives.  I was literally falling apart, I was to the point of "I can't handle this", "why are we going through this?", "why can't things be different?".  Not only was my faith seriously lacking, but I wasn't seeing the good, the positive, or the many blessings.  I was focused on the negative and how the whole situation inconvenienced ME and MY plans for our life. 

     Ephesians is one of my favorite books of the Bible.  I came across this verse and something about it I liked, but it wasn't until today that I heard this verse speak to me in my life.   
   
 Ephesians 2:10 tells me that God created me for a purpose...he chose to create me the way I am.  He chose to allow me to go through the things in life I have gone through, all in part of making me who I am to do the "good" works in which He prepared for me in ADVANCE to do.  - Before I was born.  This verse applies the same for my husband.  God created him for a purpose, leading up to who he is today so that he can do the "good" works that God prepared in advance for him to do. 
  
     I will tell you, I hate that my husband has to be deployed, I hate that he has to be away from the kids and I, but there are so many blessings from this deployment.  Our marriage has definitely strengthened, financially we are in a better place and he is getting the experience under his belt to move up in his career with the Military.  But the most important things are that we are both closer to God than we were before and this is all part of God's plan to make us into the people He wants us to be so we can do the "good" works He prepared for us.
    
   So think back on your life. If you are feeling like your life has no direction, you can't make it through whatever you are going through, read Ephesians 2:10 for a reminder that this is all a part of God making you who he wants you to be in order to do the "good works in which He prepared in advance" for you to do.

Dear Heavenly Father,
   I pray that you help me to see the positive in all situations and you help me to see the many blessings I have in life, instead of all the negative things and things that inconvenience me.  I ask that you guide me down the paths you have set for me to do the "good works'' that you have prepared for me in advance.  Change my heart, work in my life, mold me into the person you want me to be.  In your name I pray. Amen.