I often return to Ephesians 2:1-10 and sit with it a while. It’s such a great passage to memorize and dwell on during the day. It tells me who I was, what God did for me and continues to do, who I am now, and what I’m doing. Consider it afresh here:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Evert time I read it, I see something important for the day. Today, I love thinking about how everything is “not [my] own doing.” Everything is God working in me as a gift of grace through faith. I also notice that God continues to prepare good works for us to do. If we’re still here, God invites us to the tasks He has prepared. Today, I simply ask what God’s plans for me are today. I ask God about the people I can bless, the ways I can serve, the manner in which I’m to intercede for others, and the work He has for me. I remember hearing the words of an older woman who said, “If God hasn’t taken me to heaven yet, it’s because He still has something for me to do here.”