Hello beauties - it's a new month which means we have a new opportunity to come close to the Lord as we begin our study on the number 7. We are all aware that on the seventh day of creation, God rested. But that seventh day of creation was more than God resting -
Genesis 2:3
So God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it [as His own, that is, set it apart as holy from other days], because in it He rested from all His work which He had created and done.
The seventh day is a holy and blessed day that is to be set apart from other days because God's work was completed. The overall meaning of the number 7 is God's Completion.
God's work is always complete. He is the Alpha AND the Omega, He is already the end. Through the Lord, Himself, He is completion. Everything has begun with Him, He is moving in all things and in all ways, and everything will end with Him. When the earth comes to an end, and time as we understand it has ended, God's work for all eternity will be a holy completion because with Him there truly is no end. That can be hard for us to grasp because our minds can only make sense of things that have a beginning and an end.
Most of us love to complete tasks and make sure that we see things through. The world teaches us to "get closure" in situations and relationships. But this is man's way of trying to mimic how God operates, by way of completion. Completion is important because it is God's design but most of the time we go about it in all the wrong ways. And sometimes the Holy Spirit will even prompt us to walk away and not see something through, that always requires great obedience because we like to think of ourselves as finishers. And this is exactly why and how we have a great invitation to grow with the Lord this month - to rely on His completed works and not the work of our own hands. If He asks us to walk away, regardless of how we think of "complete," do we trust that His work is always complete so if He asks to walk away we can still become satisfied? It needs to be about His work and His purpose instead of our own.
Psalm 57:2
I will cry to God Most High, Who accomplishes all things on my behalf [for He completes my purpose in His plan].
We are complete because we are God's handiwork and our God is a God of follow-through. He always finishes what He starts, it's not in His character to leave anything unfinished. He is the Great Redeemer and finishes things in our life by His redemptive plan. He, and He alone, is what completes us and we need to give Him more credit for the work that He does in our life. We've become a people who love to celebrate the accomplishments of others and we like to receive recognition for the milestones that we achieve, yet it's only because of the Lord's work through our lives that makes it all possible. As the scripture above states, "He completes my purpose." We were created with a divine purpose that is part of His plan.
Too many times we get caught up in chasing our own plan - our dreams and our goals. Our reality is that we've been created for God's goal and until we embrace that fact, we will never be satisfied.
On that seventh day of creation, God was completely satisfied with His work. When we read the creation story we see that as God was creating, He saw that it was good. He affirmed it and He sustained. The work of His hands is always good. The creation power of the Holy Spirit is only good. It is not possible for the Lord to make anything that is flawed let alone anything that is bad. With the Lord, it is always good and it is always complete. As we live our lives, that is why it's so important to pursue the purpose that God created us for because it is always good and makes our human existence complete when we complete His work. Humans are rarely ever satisfied meeting their own goals because there is always a new goal to set. We achieve one goal and then we set a new one. We love to see how far we can push ourselves and how fast we can achieve things so there is never an end and there is never a full satisfaction because there is always something new to work towards. God gives us free will to pursue whatever it is that we desire. And when we lay it all down to pursue Him, we partner with His completed works and become a part of His completed plan to carry out the purpose that He actually created us for. Then He affirms us and sustains us and we become satisfied.
Often we don't realize that our lack of satisfaction is because we aren't partnering with God's purpose for our life. So we chase goal after and goal and dream after dream only to realize, after too much time has passed, that we've wasted a lot of time by chasing after the wrong things. We have the tendency to believe that what we perceive as good means that it's from God and therefore we can go after it. But sometimes that good thing we identify is meant for someone else's purpose and not our own.
We have the chance every day to invite God's completed work into our life by holding onto our own plans loosely. We can allow the Holy Spirit to move and change things as He chooses so we can be course corrected in our plans and goals. If we fight through that fear of the unknown, trusting that God is in control and we don't need to be, then our faith kicks in and God's plan goes into action. That's when we find ourselves fully satisfied. As God's work in our daily life is completed, we sit in daily satisfaction - no regrets and operating in peace.
We see this in the life of Jesus, as God is our only example and His words and ways are always consistent. Jesus said, "It is finished." The Father's work was complete in the life of Jesus and even through excruciating circumstances, Jesus was satisfied because His purpose was fulfilled.
We have a great purpose to fulfill in God's Kingdom here on earth. As we study the number 7 this month, we have an opportunity to refine how we spend our time, where our mind is focused and how we define success. This month, I invite you to lay your dreams down at the feet of Jesus so that you can pick up His marching orders. You might be surprised at how these two things are the same but you also might be surprised at how different these two things may be. It's only through the act of laying it ALL down, will you discover what Jesus is handing you.
Let's celebrate God work this month! As we look around us for the number 7, it will help us stay focused on God's active work in our life. He completes us. He satisfies us! Blessings to your spiritual journey and growth this month!