Reveal

www.bible.com/1713/jhn.14.21.csb

You’ve probably seen the home improvement shows where they work on someone’s home or just a few rooms for the whole episode, and then at the is the BIG REVEAL, and all that hard work is shown off to the surprised homeowners. I have caught myself a few times just happening on one of these shows and hooked, waiting along with the everyone else to see what that hard work looks like at the end.

I feel that’s kind of what our Christian life is like. We work hard all our lives to be more like Christ. We put fresh paint on the soul, tear out walls and build in new rooms, put down new floors and rearrange cabinets. Our lives go through a complete makeover when we follow Jesus. And guess what? There’s a big reveal at the end. But it isn’t all our hard work, because everything we’ve done has only been because we have loved Jesus and followed for the work He has put into us. We do not, and never present ourselves to the Lord to say, “see all the hard work I’ve done.” It’s more, “See all that you’ve done in me.” Jesus is the big reveal, because after all the work, we look more like Jesus than ourselves. He takes broken and dilapidated, and turns it into something beautiful.

What do you present Jesus with this morning? A fixer-upper? A model home? A home that could use some TLC? Or what’s left over after a tornado has gone through your life? It doesn’t matter to Him how much or how little you have to work with. He is the Master Carpenter, and He can build something beautiful, even when you thought it was pretty enough, or nothing at all.

My Lord Jesus I pray work in me and through me to become the mansion You have promised. I know I don’t bring much to the job site, and that is only what You’ve given me. But may You work a good work in me, so that I may serve and praise, because I am today what You have made me, and this not of myself, but it is the gift of God. Thank You Jesus. In Your Name, Amen.