FRIDAY March 21st
This is the final devotion that I am going to write based around words related to ‘prepare’ and I will use an illustration from when I worked in the motor trade.
I was for twenty years a paint sprayer involved for 15 of them in vehicle accident recovery and repair, and so much of my time was spent in preparation of the vehicles to ensure that they were ready to be painted, that is if I can put it this way, to be re-coated with paint and finished off ready for the owner to drive away.
Well, we were all damaged individuals, damaged because of sin, but God had an accident recovery plan, it was prepared in eternity past and put into effect at Calvary, and as we have come to the Cross we have come to the place where God has recovered us and has been busy working on us to make us fit for his kingdom. He has become our rightful owner, and he has given so much to enable us to be refinished and prepared for eternity.
We have become new creations, this gives me an opportunity to quote my favourite verse again, 2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’ The next verse (v18) says that God has reconciled us to himself, can I put it this way, ‘God has recovered us to himself. Therefore, as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 6, ‘You are
not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body’.
God has taken us into his workshop and as we read in Ephesians 2:10 we have become his workmanship; therefore, we need to ensure that we ‘put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’, (Ephesians 4:24).
The illustration I want to give from when I was in the motor trade is this: I had been given a particular car to work on, which I had been told was the pride and the joy of its owner, it was a Mazda MX-5 and as far as I was concerned it was in the best possible colour which was red and that when the repair and repaint was done he was going to be exceptionally fussy, he even made regular visits to see the work in progress.
Well, I did what I considered to be an okay job, and the car was ready for the owner to collect. He arrived and I remember hearing someone calling me to say that I was required in the office and my heart sank thinking that there was a problem with the car. Well, you can imagine my surprise when the owner came out to me and was overwhelmed with his car and I shall always remember what he said, ‘This car looks better than the day I drove it out of the showroom’ and he shook my hand. (he also left a very good tip in the office too which I never received!)
Well, God has recovered us, he has worked on us at the Cross, he is still working on us every day and one day he will take us into his eternal presence in a far better shape than which we were, for we were lost, we were sinners, but he has saved us and we have been re-coated in the righteousness of Christ and one day we will be re-clothed in a new eternal and glorious body.
What a wonderful work the work of redemption is. We can but bow our hearts and say thank you God for sending Jesus, thank you Jesus that you came.
I will close with a final verse:
‘“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen,”’ Revelation 7:12.