"GOOD WORKS?"

Ephesians 2:8-10                        (ESV)

"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is NOT YOUR OWN DOING; it is the GIFT OF GOD,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10 For we are HIS workmanship, created in CHRIST JESUS for "GOOD WORKS", which GOD prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Have you ever heard the phrase "Sometimes it isn't what you do, it is HOW you do it that counts"?  That phrase could have been used in the letter to the Ephesians.  Paul stated in Ephesians 2:8-9 that our salvation was a GIFT OF GOD.  If something is a GIFT, the only thing we have to do is accept that GIFT.  The GIFT GIVER determines which GIFT we should receive AND when that GIFT should be revealed to us.  

Believers do not perform "GOOD WORKS" to gain salvation, rather our "GOOD WORKS" are because of our salvation.  Believers are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) and the Holy Spirit indwells us to glorify JEHOVAH.  One translation declares we are GOD's "masterpiece" created in CHRIST JESUS to perform acts that glorify GOD.  GOD chose some of us "before the foundations of the world" (Ephesians 1:4) to glorify HIM.  HE chose me.  I wasn't smart enough, wise enough, or good enough to choose HIM!

The "GOOD WORKS" we do are all because HE has called us into them.  Verse 10 above clearly states "which GOD prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them".  It is certainly not because I am better than my brother or sister.  GOD "prepared" me to display HIS grace, mercy, long-suffering, and goodness to others.  When I think about myself and my problems all the time I am not displaying HIM, rather displaying my problems!  

GOD could have created beings that had no choice but to serve HIM.  Instead HE created us IN HIS OWN IMAGE (Genesis 1:27) but with a choice to live for HIM or not.  When we choose HIM it is because HE "draws" us to HIM (John 6:44).  HE draws us to HIM and then performs "GOOD WORKS" because of us living for HIM!  My prayer is the "GOOD WORKS" of GOD aren't hidden by my lack of obedience and trusting in HIM.