I collect pictures of paths. Thank you, Paula Kaufman for this one.

Who am we? Why are we here? These questions, tightly interwoven are crucial to enjoying who God created us to be.

“For we are his workmanship,
created in  Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10

 How do plan, purpose, and passion inter-relate? How do these words speak?

“For we are his workmanship,”

I am his — God’s — workmanship. No question. These words shout truth, these words shout identity. “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13. I belong to God. I am his child. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” I John 3:1. No question!

Being his workmanship defines who I am, my created identity.

Part of his workmanship, is not only physical being, it is our heart, our passions, our purpose, God’s design for all of me.

“Created in Christ Jesus for good works,”

Growing up, in my college years (when my faith became real), even into early years of marriage, this was a foreign concept. I didn’t even think about it. I was just putting one foot ahead of the other.

But God. God had a plan. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD,” Jeremiah 29:11. Although I memorized that verse early in my Christian life, I wasn’t listening to its truth. It was encouraging in a nice kind of way, but knowing the words is merely information, not transformation.

I longed for transformation. Transformation resulting from living my purpose.

“Purpose is the DNA of your soul, knit into you from the moment of conception. It is the pattern from which everything about you originates. You don’t find purpose. You live and let purpose reveal itself to you.” Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD.

If you looked at my life in those early ministry years, you might think, I know what’s important to Sue. I think I knew too; but there was a disconnect. I was living from perceived expectations, not from an understanding of purpose.

“God not only loves you very much
but also has put his hand on you for something special.
Something happened in you.
Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word,”
from I Thessalonians 1:4-9, The Message rendition

God loving me leads to my life being an echo* of his Word. Identity leads to purpose.

And it is God’s purpose being lived out through his children.

“God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works
but because of his own purpose and grace,
which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,”
II Timothy 1:9 (underline mine)

I am the work of God’s hands so that he might be glorified! Isaiah 60:21. My purpose is not about me. It’s about God’s glory.

“which God prepared before hand,”

This is security, the source of significance;  this is grace. “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.” Ephesians 2:8 and 9.

Another of those early scripture memory verses that I divorced from its context. Because of the grace of salvation, not my works, God endowed me with purpose.

“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me:
your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.”
Psalm 138:8

“that we should walk in them.”

We should walk. I hear God’s heart in three ways: there is a path (walk in them);  I should keep moving; and the translation is walk — not run.

This speaks of passion. I want to continually be walking on the paths God has created for me.

What about you? What do you hear from these scriptures?

Copyright: Sue Tell, February 2025

*The name, Echoes of Grace, comes from this scripture.