The place which God's prepared

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


I've been thinking a bit about whether God is actively or passively involved in your day to day life. I've had some friends questioning this sort of thing lately, and I guess it's caused me to think.

I read verses like the above, and it would suggest at first reading that God is incredibly active in your day to day life, preparing the way for you in advance. Some argue this verse actually refers to heaven, and that if we act as Christ's agents on earth, God has prepared heaven for us.

It's all rather confusing.

But here's what I've seen in my life.

When doors are closed in my life, windows miraculously open... and I mean miraculously. When I question what is right (and by question, I mean I ask God) in different aspects of my life, it seems there is always a door opened or closed. Take my current job. I'd been feeling like an orphan away from my family since leaving The Salvation Army. It felt as if one of the most significant parts of me was no longer there. Suddenly, my parents are moved back "home" to Victoria, outside of Melbourne, to Geelong. I meet Phill & Catherine, the Corps Officers at Torquay (15 mins from my parents corps) and there is a window of opportunity for me to get a job at Torquay. The problem is, I loved Concern Australia right?! I mean, I worked with great people, I enjoyed the work I was doing, and I didn't want to leave. So I prayed about what God wanted me to do. I felt that if a specific thing happened, that would be a closing of a door for me, as I couldn't see any further growth happening for me within that position. What do you know, two days later, exactly the thing I prayed would be a closing of the door, happened... two days later. Coincidence? Freaky? Maybe, but things have been great ever since, and I was able to leave Concern on good terms.

Life has been so great here ever since... it as though God had been preparing me "for such a time as this", and each day I'm challenged and growing more and more in my faith, and in my personal & professional life.

But no matter what that verse ACTUALLY means, I know that it is true - that when we press into God, when we strive to be more like Jesus, and when we pray constantly to grow more and more into the people God saw when He created us, we can see God at work within our lives... and we can be assured that we are going to the place where God has prepared - on earth and in heaven!

AMEN!!!