“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Fortunately for when we’ve done it backwards, we remember that verse is preceded by “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” For all the times we have gotten it backwards and tried to tell God what to do, He reminds us of His gift of grace and reminds us to move over and let Him do the direction-giving and driving. How again does He give directions? He gives them to you through His Word, which hopefully you’re reading daily, letting Him drive your day. He gives them to you through His Word which is heard when you gather as God’s people in worship. He gives you His direction through life as you remember you’re His child through Baptism; and as your hunger and thirst is satisfied by His nourishment of forgiveness and stronger faith as you receive His body and blood with the earthly elements of bread and wine brought together by His Word in His family meal, looking forward to the feast that is to come.

As you’re reading this, we’re in the midst of these 40 Days of Purpose – The Christ-Driven Life as part of our Peace Plan: to lead many more to Christ so that He may drive their life; and to nurture one another in life’s journey even better as fellow followers of Christ. As we read Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life” through our “Lutheran lenses” of “grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone,” we remember that it is God doing all the work through Baptism and the Lord’s Supper to drive our lives. If you haven’t picked up a copy of the book yet, it’s not too late! If you’ve picked up a copy and have fallen behind in the daily reading, that’s OK – just read two (or three) chapters a day to catch up! Remember, it’s by God’s grace that we’re saved, not by the work of reading pages of the 40 Days book!!

My prayer for and with you during this journey of 40 days that we’re on together – The Christ-Driven Life”, is that each one of us, and all of us collectively as a congregation, see more clearly how Christ is the one driving and leading our lives with His purposes for us.

May your 40 Days be blessed with the “rains” of God’s grace as He points out His purposes for you. May you remember that your sins were flooded and drowned out the moment He baptized you and brought you into His family to follow Jesus and be driven by Him, to help others know He wants to be in the driver’s seat of their life.