God Don’t Make No Junk!
Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life. – Ecclesiastes 7:14
Job 23:10-14
10 But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.
11 For I have stayed on God’s paths; I have followed his ways and not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from his commands but have treasured his words more than daily food.
13 But once he has made his decision, who can change his mind? Whatever he wants to do, he does.
14 So he will do to me whatever he has planned. He controls my destiny.
God Don’t Make No Junk! While the grammar is less than stellar, the thought is extraordinary and compelling. The Father is too intelligent and too good to make defective people. When He had finished the work of the creation of all things, he repeatedly said that the results of His efforts were good. After He finished making man and woman, it is as though He paused for a moment to survey all He had made. He was very pleased, delighted. He saw that it was very good! (Genesis 1:31)
Very good indeed! The human race is the pinnacle of the Father’s creative effort. He made creatures with whom alone He could have meaningful relationships because they were made In His image.
Genesis 1:27-31
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created Him; male and female, He created them.
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.
Despite how we might feel about ourselves or the lies we have believed and may tell ourselves, the truth is far more vital. Each child of the King needs to know they are not mistakes. Instead, they were intelligently designed by the most incredible creative mind of all time and eternity. Every child of the King was formed according to His exact specifications.
Psalms 139:14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it.
These are words of encouragement we can share again and again. The result will be thankfulness to the Father for creating us just as we are.
“God is love. He didn’t need us. But he wanted us. And that is the most amazing thing” (Rick Warren). Pause for a moment and consider. The Designer and Creator wanted us. Therefore, He created us for Himself to know and to love.
Jeremiah 31:3 I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself.
The Father’s love is not something we can earn, deserve, or maintain through anything we do. Therefore, He chose to give it to us freely.
REFLECT & PRAY
“So, the next time you’re feeling unlovable, think on those truths and say out loud: ‘I am a child of the Most High King, and he adores me.” And you might add, ‘I’m wonderful because God don’t make no junk’” (Michelle Medlock Adams).
Father is so easy to get down on myself when I fail. Help me to see myself through Your loving and kind eyes.
INSIGHT
Self-acceptance is basically trusting God for who I am, disabilities, or physical flaws and all (Jerry Bridges).
“I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of. For to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking (George MacDonald). The Scriptures make this so clear!
Psalms 139:13-17
13 You made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,
We are the Father’s “workmanship,” that is, His “poem,” His “work of art.” When Paul speaks of us as masterpieces, the Father’s works in progress, he says of us as a new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ, children of the King.
In the Greek language of the New Testament, how are things emphasized? Rather than using underlining, highlighting, or exclamation points, the location of words in a sentence takes their place. Word order is all-important. In Greek, the word His is positioned at the beginning and could be translated as “His work are we” (UBS). We are the product of His meticulous and thoughtful handiwork. Each child of the King is the Father’s spiritual re-creation. When we became children of the King, His work of spiritual re-creation began within each of us. It will continue into all eternity. We are a work in progress.
The word translated masterpiece, handiwork, workmanship, and work of art is poiema. “Poiema is used in classical times for the work of a craftsman, such as the making of a crown” (Hoehner). The English word poem comes from this Greek word. The noun poiema comes from the Greek verb poieo to do or make. The point is that He made us. He is responsible.
But there is more.
The Father has eternal purposes for each child of the King. Some experience great suffering and difficulty on earth to prepare them for the Father’s appointed task.
When God wants to drill a man
And thrill a man
And skill a man,
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him.
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out –
God knows what He’s about. Anonymous
Revelation 21:5 Behold, I am making all things new.
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© Dr. H 2022
Dr H Reflections 