In my last piece, I drew attention to God’s truth, that we are His Masterpiece. How do we become God’s Masterpiece? We become His Masterpiece when He creates us anew in Christ Jesus. So, the moment we accept Jesus Christ into our lives we become God’s Masterpiece, well, presumably. The truth however is that becoming God’s masterpiece is one thing, continuing to live as God’s masterpiece is another. The idea is that once we find Jesus Christ, we are no longer who we used to be. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17. Essentially, once we are in Christ, we have become God’s Masterpiece, except something causes us to backslide.
The same process that leads us to Christ is what will keep us in Him. We must confess Him daily, that is, our faith must remain; we must be obedient to His word, that is, we are guided daily by His word; and we must live our life in such a way that the Lord is pleased. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord” – Ephesians 5:8-11. We must live life in such a way that His glory always shows forth in us. We must live a fruitful life of the Spirit. Our lives before Christ is likened to darkness. I become a masterpiece because I now live a life of light in Christ. The old has gone away and the new is here. To remain a masterpiece, I must continue to live a life of light in Christ. The dark things I used to do must give way for the light of God. “All the bad, bad things I used to do, I do them no more; it’s a great change since I met God”. All the bad, bad thing things we used to do must give way to the goodness, righteousness, and truth of God for us to remain God’s masterpiece.
Some of the methods God uses to relieve us of the darkness of our past life and prepare for the glorious life of a masterpiece, are weeding and pruning. These are terms that we normally use with planting and growing. To live life as God’s masterpiece, certain things need to be planted in us and they must not only grow, they must also bear fruit. The fruiting stage of the plant is when it is grown and becomes productive. For a plant to grow to the point of being fruitful it must be nurtured. One way of nurturing plants to make sure that the plant bears good fruit is to remove weeds. This way the nutrients will be enough for the tree to bear great fruits – Mark 4:18-19. The weeds are always in the way and they also share in the source of nutrition. We must pray against the weeds of our lives. Let us pray against the things that take our time but are not gainful. Let us pray against the things that just get in the way of focusing on the Lord. They are weeds, they need to go, let us uproot them with prayer. Note that weeds grow naturally but what is planted must be cultivated. The dark deeds of our past must be weeded continuously. They tend to return on their own. Only nurturing will help the goodness, righteousness, and truth of God to grow in our lives. So, pray that all entangling things will be removed from your life so you can stay focused and bear fruits spiritually, materially, and physically.
Pruning is the other way to make sure that the plant grows and bears fruit. Many of our attitudes are not acceptable to the Lord. So, we must be pruned. We must remove the dead branches of our lives so that the living branches can get more nutrients to bear good fruits. God Himself prunes us so that we can bear more fruit. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener” – John 15:2 (NIV). There are things we do that are not necessarily sinful but are not helpful either. So, we must pray that the Lord will prune us and remove all unproductive and bad parts of our lifestyle so that we can be productive for Him.
To continue living the life of God’s masterpiece, we must pray that we will remain grounded in Him. A branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains attached to the vine – John 15:4. We must remain grounded and not allow the glittering things of life to sweep us away from the protective arm of God. An unattached branch is dead, and a dead branch cannot bear fruit. We are children of love; we are children of light. Stay grounded in His words, stay grounded in His truth, stay grounded in His love, and stay grounded in His light. Only then can we have the slightest chance of being fruitful which is a prerequisite for one who lives as God’s Masterpiece. May we always remain God’s masterpiece, the apples of His eyes, in Jesus’ name. – Pastor Simbo Odunaiya
