I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire! (Luke 24:32)
God can solve our soul issues and our goal issues.
Think about it. Many of our problems are either soul issues, or goal issues.
Our soul issues include our identity, “Who am I?” and our value, “Am I worth anything?”
And our goal issues include our purpose, “What am I here for? What am I supposed to be doing with my life?”
Fortunately, God can solve all of our soul issues and goal issues, and they are actually summed up very tidily in Ephesians chapter two.
The foundation of all of our soul issues is that we start out dead in our sins. We are sons of disobedience. We conduct ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and are by nature children of wrath, separated from God.
The good news is that there is actually a quick solution to our soul issues, and I’m still in Ephesians chapter two. It says that God, who is rich in mercy, loves us with His great love! He loves us so much that, through Jesus, even though we start out dead in our sins, He makes us alive through Christ!
And it’s not because we start doing good, or because we finally get our act together. He does it by His grace and kindness toward us, not by our own good deeds.
This solves our soul issues. Who am I? Through Christ, I am a very much loved, born again child of God! Am I worth anything? I’m worth so much that the creator of the world, God Himself, loved me and saved me and calls me His child!
Now what about the goal issues, what am I here for? What am I supposed to be doing with my life?
We are still in Ephesians chapter two. Verse ten says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
What am I here for? What am I supposed to be doing with my life? Good works!
Just look around and say, “What good works can I be doing today?” Then do them!
Ephesians 2:10 says we were “created in Christ Jesus for good works,” and it says that “God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
God CREATED us to do good works, and He PREPARED BEFOREHAND that we should live this way...doing good works.
One more soul issue: the idea of loneliness. We find the solution again in Ephesians chapter two. We are not in this alone. Verse 19 says we are “...fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…”
All the Christian believers all over the world? We are all in this together!
And as God’s children, we have His Holy Spirit inside of us. Ephesians 2 concludes with verse 22 which says we are “being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Yes, we are all born with many soul issues and goal issues, but the good news is that God can solve them all as we turn to Him!
And we can find them all summed up rather tidily right here in Ephesians chapter two.
May God bless you today.
I’m Doug Apple.
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