Today's Devotional: The Upper Room Daily Devotional Nashville, Tennessee, United States “Renovations" for Tuesday, 31 March 2015 - Scripture: Galatians 5:22-25

Today's Devotional:
The Upper Room Daily Devotional Nashville, Tennessee, United States “Renovations" for Tuesday, 31 March 2015 - Scripture: Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.
24 Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah Yeshua have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with its passions and desires. 25 Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day.
O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.[Isaiah 64:8 (NRSV)]
My daughter-in-law walked past some old houses that were being renovated. She told me how messy they looked during the process and wondered how they would look when they were finished. She was anxious to see the renovations completed — the final result of all the hard work.
This conversation reminded me of our spiritual renovation process through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. As the Spirit works in our lives, God brings to the surface areas that need healing, attitudes that need changing, sins that need repentance, and relationships that need restoring.
Like the house renovations, the process can be messy and sometimes painful. However, God deals with us lovingly and gently. God is the Master Builder with perfect timing. We are works in progress, and we become more like Jesus during our spiritual transformation.
When we lean on God and persevere, God will transform and sanctify us. How exciting it is to know that God is in the process of renovating us so that we are becoming the children we were created to be!
Read more from the author, here."Basket of Blessings"

I enjoy painting with oils as a hobby. This is a relatively new pastime for me and I thoroughly enjoy myself when I find the time to paint. I recently felt inspired to paint this picture which is entitled – ‘From a Can of Worms to a Basket of Blessings’.
I had been praying for a friend. At the time there were things in her life that were worrying, painful and messy. I could relate to what she was experiencing. Inspired by the Holy Spirit I asked God to turn her can of worms into a basket of blessings. She commented at the time about the picture that phrase had created in her mind and how helpful it had been. It gave me the idea for a painting.
Our lives can resemble a can of worms – we all fall short and become entrapped in sin. The poor decisions others make can hurt and wound us. We can look back at our past and find plenty of ‘cans of worms’ to dig up if we so choose. We can look at our lives now and wonder how things turned out so differently from what we had imagined. But God can turn our suffering, our selfishness, our sickness, our poor choices, and our weaknesses into something beautiful and good. That’s grace!
The wriggly, rather ugly worms are what the fisherman uses to catch the fish that will become a delicious and wholesome meal. Likewise God can use the difficult and often rather ugly things in our lives to produce goodness and blessings. That’s his refining grace! As it says in Romans 8: 28 – ‘And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.’ (NLT)
How does God do this? Have a close look at the painting and see if you can see what God uses to turn our can of worms into a basket of blessings. Did you see the cross? It’s subtle but it’s there. Sometimes we can miss the cross. However, along with the resurrection, the cross is central to our faith. On the cross Jesus took all our pain, all our sickness, all our weaknesses, all our ‘mess’ and exchanged them for the blessings of forgiveness, peace with God, abundance, health, wholeness, righteousness, eternal life. What an amazing work Jesus did. He became the ‘can of worms’ that we might inherit a ‘basket of blessings’. He was obedient and self sacrificing. He went to the cross where he experienced the incredible suffering and pain that should have been ours. He did this so that you and I can be restored to a right relationship with him and receive the inheritance of the righteous. That’s amazing grace! That’s immeasurable love!
The work was completed on the cross – there is nothing we can add to it. However becoming the people God wants us to be is an ongoing process as we allow our wonderful Saviour to work in our lives and use even the suffering and ‘mess’ to restore us, refine us and bless us.[Ann Stewart]

The Author: Ann Stewart (South Australia, Australia)
Thought for the Day: Today I will strive to be all that God wants me to be.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit in us. May we reach our full potential as your children and serve you well and with joy. Amen.
Prayer focus: Builders

____________________________