11/03/2025
Do we have a plan for our life? Have we set everything before ourselves and determined what pieces of the puzzle go where, and started the process of fitting them perfectly together? If so, there is probably a nice spot for God, another for Jesus, and oh yes, let’s not forget the Holy Spirit, but is that really how our life is formed, and our faith is shaped?
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 ESV
Jesus changes our lives! He takes all of the pieces that we thought would fit together into a picturesque landscape and recuts them into new ones. If that recutting takes place in our lives then we find that the new picture we have been given will be a holy one... a picture of heaven, Jesus, white robed saints, and God Himself. Working on it will bring us such things as victory, suffering, enlightenment, great love, children, a wonderful life full of faith, comfort, joy, and all the things that God heaps on those who choose His Son as their Savior and confess Him as their One True God.
Aside from the images of Jesus, God, and the heavenly host surrounding us, the picture puzzles of our lives will be different for each of us. My life might include becoming a saint, yours a pastor, someone else’s a missionary, or perhaps we will be pictured as an accountant, a fireman, or some other worldly profession. Whatever is in store for us in life, whether it be joy, or suffering, will be good, and lead us to deeper faith. Each will ultimately depict the fulfilling of God’s will for us. The central theme of every picture that Jesus constructs from our life will be one of righteousness with the central figure being God, and our posture that of servitude, and holiness.
The question we must answer is “who will we serve and which puzzle picture we will become?” It all boils down to how we envision our lives and deaths... will my puzzle be an easy earthly death followed by a blank or hellish puzzle piece, or a spiritual death on the cross with Jesus, and an entirely repainted puzzle with a glorious and heavenly final piece? Pastor Oswald Chambers saw this as breaking away from ourselves, but the result is the same...
“The one point to decide is - Will I give up, will I surrender to Jesus Christ, and make no condition whatever as to how the break comes? I must be broken from my self-realization, and immediately that point is reached, the reality of the supernatural identification takes place at once, and the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable - “I have been crucified with Christ”” - Oswald Chambers
I once knew a person who worked very complex puzzles, and in the end he wouldn’t just admire them for a while only to tear them apart and place them back in the box, no, he would put a sealer on top of them to preserve them, then he would frame them, and hang them on the wall. These weren’t just any old puzzles, but puzzles of masterpieces that contained many thousands of pieces. They would take incredible effort and many hours to put together. How long have we been working on our puzzle of faith? Will it be a masterpiece when we are finished, or just some cute image that people will chuckle at, or say “that’s nice” when they see it? Has the effort itself trapped us into completing it ourselves, or can you push the one we have been working on aside and let the puzzle that Jesus Christ is recutting and changing us into become the image of our life’s work?
So, as we choose the life we wish to live, what will it look like? Will we continue to line up our own pieces and try our best to finish it with a pretty picture, or will we be crucified with Christ and allow His life in us to become a glorious puzzle, and masterpiece, that ends with eternal life... a life’s effort suitable for framing? What is the choice we will make?
Choose! It bis not too late to hand the unplaced puzzle pieces to Jesus.
“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
1 Peter 5:10 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the life, death, and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ. I thank you Father for the invitation to be crucified with Him, and to have my life changed forever. I desire a life of belief and faith in which You, Jesus, and I live together in one another as scripture depicts (John 14:20-21). My mind’s eye wanders to scenes of eternal glory, and even as I am enthralled by my imagination, I know that the reality pales in comparison to my near sightedness. Holy Father, keep me in your bosom until that day when we will look at the complete puzzle of my life in you, and you will reveal your handiwork work, a masterpiece, that you have painted there. Today Lord, I can only hope and trust in you and that my faith will become the inspiration for your work in me, but on that day when the painting of my life is unveiled at last, I will be taken aback by what has been completed by your hand. Help me Father to persevere as I do those things you would have me do and let each piece of this immense puzzle of my life be placed exactly where you would have it go. Let all of this, my crucifixion, my life in Jesus, my trust in your Holy Spirit, and my obedience to your will, be depicted together for your praise and your glory forevermore.
Amen
“In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.””
John 14:20-21 ESV
Rich Forbes