61 - The Twelve Movements of a Man's Life #11: A Man Knows that He is God's Masterpiece
A Man Knows He is God’s Masterpiece:
Every man is created to lead and needs inner-strength to do so; he needs to know how to get the strength he needs to fulfill his leadership responsibilities. Every man needs God and others to succeed.
For his own personal fulfillment, every man needs to attend to his tasks, mission, and/or callings—all synonyms. A “job well-done” is gratifying.
Every man (and woman) is created to live fully, love deeply, and lead well lives that others can benefit from long after the man has finished his career. The greatest treasure of a man’s life is the value he leaves behind.
Every man needs to recognize his importance and dependency upon the God who created him. A man has inherent God-created worth, and he is created to be in need.
What stops a leader from succeeding? Usually, he does not know his value, and he does not know his neediness; therefore, he doesn’t develop the inner strength and inner resources to “stay the course” of his mission.
We are God-created; we need to depend upon Him and how he created us.
God created us to live with heart.
God created us as emotional and spiritual creatures, created to live fully through relationship with ourselves, others, and Him, as talked about in The Voice of the Heart and Needs of the Heart, by Chip Dodd.
Addiction takes us away from the heart of how we are created, because addiction is all about “avoiding” and “silencing” the heart.
Four powerful scriptures speak to our worth, our dependency on God who created us, and the importance of the heart:
Ephesians 2:10.
Psalm 139:13-16.
Proverbs 4:23.
Psalm 8.
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
The word “workmanship” testifies to God creating us specifically.
The DNA of the human being is 99.9% identical to all other human beings. We are created 99.9% the same emotionally and spiritually, as well as biologically and physiologically.
We have also been gifted with a .01% uniqueness.
That uniqueness makes us not only God’s “workmanship,” but also God’s “masterpiece.” The word “workmanship” also can be translated “masterpiece,” referring to one of a kind, which we actually are. It also can mean, “poetry.”
God sees us as a “one of a kind,” created to do “good works,” or make “masterpieces.”
We are God’s creation displayed as His “very good” expression of Himself, as referenced in Genesis 1:31; after we were created as His last action of creation, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”
Not only are we prized by God, He gave us great good to do on this earth to live a fulfilled life as the verse states. We are “created to create,” care for, and tend to the works of His hands, mind, and heart. We share our gifts with a world in need of what we can offer.
Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)says:
“For you created my inmost being; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
Your inmost being is your heart, the heart of how you are created and the heart of what you are created to do.
You are created to feel, need, desire, long and hope.
The heart moves us to:
Need belonging and mattering
Seek safety and care
Crave life and life to the full
Not only that, but we are literally made unique, specifically “knitted together.” We can picture God knitting with the care of a prayerful grandmother.
Proverbs 4:23 (NIV): In reference to our inmost being, the Proverb says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” The word “guard” refers to oversee, protect, treasure and attend to the heart. It is the center of our being. Everything we do and every thought we have is connected to it.
These three scriptures declare:
The value of our worth to God,
His love for us is certain
The heart is “the wellspring of life” in us
And we are called to attend to it as a treasure.
Psalm 8 (ESV) brings God’s “workmanship” into focus in three movements.
The three movements speak to our:
inborn strength
inherent worth
assignment on earth
Movement One: Psalm 8:2 says, “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.”
God refers to establishing “strength” in a baby. Neuroscience refers to the limbic system as the part of the brain that seeks attachment and is “confident” in being dependent. Out of this part of us, from birth to death, we are created to feel, need, desire, long and hope. We seek connection and fulfillment. God refers to the heart of us and how He created us as “strength.”
Out of the heart we:
seek fulfillment
reach for connection with God and others
express our feelings as valuable
extend our desire and longings towards fulfillment
hope to grow into who we are created to become
This strength of acceptance of dependency and desire for connection to God and others is the antidote to and that which “overcomes” a world that rejects God, dependency, feelings, needs, longings and hope as things of weakness. Our connection to how we are created and who created us overcomes the “world’s messaging.”
Movement Two: Psalm 8:3-5 says,
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”
We are not “big” but we are a “big deal” to God. We are image-bearers of His creation, who He has assigned glory and honor. The Psalmist clearly wonders in comparison to his own size related to universe, how God would even notice him or be concerned for him. God’s answer to the question is astounding. We are created by God, given a high position by God, and valued as His own crowning “achievement.” We are a “big deal” to God
Movement Three: Psalm 8:6 says,
“You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet.”
We are created with strength of heart, created as image-bearers of God, and called as His creation to oversee, care for, tend to, and create upon the earth. We are never to leave behind or discard how He created us to depend upon Him as children who grow into rulers.
God loves us; we are His workmanship, His poetry and His masterpieces.
Please read Keeping Heart by Chip Dodd to explore more about how we can live how He created us.
Dr. Chip Dodd
Voice of the Heart Center