Eurekas about Good Works

Ephesians 2:8ff has set me thinking about good works like I haven't thought before. Up until a couple of days ago, despite that I have read this passage many, many times (or heard it) countless times since my new birth at age 11, I guess I've believed any of the following :

1) I create good works, making them up as I go along, or
2) God oversees the good works that Christians and nonChristians make up, or
3) God makes up good works for Christians to do as they go along, as they pray for ways to respond positively to negative situations.

Now, I wouldn't have said these out loud, because even writing it now I see how ignorant it is. Not to mention arrogant, which I'll explain.

I reread the verse slowly and suddenly zeroed in on the line, "created them beforehand ...to walk in..."

Eureka! Two eurekas!

First of all, I realized that I don't create good works. God does. Elementary, my dear Watson. Don't you just wanna say, "Hellloooooo???!!" And just as I don't create good works, neither does anyone else in this world create good works for me to do.

Second, God oversees the good works done by everyone. That is where the period belongs. The phrase 'that others make up' was settled with Eureka Number One.

Third, God does not make things up as He goes along. Not only was I in His mind before the foundation of the world, so were the works that He had already matched me with. God doesn't need flesh and bones before He creates a job for them. Mindboggling as it is to me, God created the good works for me to walk in at the same time He designed my curly hair, my affinity for flowers, the husband I've married, the places I'd live, the friends I'd make, the splinters I'd get in my toes, the children I'd bear and lose, the shortness of my fingers, and everything else. The good works He created for me to walk in are as intrinsic as DNA. God has not been taking it one day at a time like I have.

My concept of "beforehand" is mighty limited. On a good day, "beforehand" means I've gone to the grocery store and looked at the sale flier and made my list beforehand. As in, before I hand more money to the cashier than I should. Or, "let's go to care group but beforehand drop these books off at the library." It's amazing the credit I give myself for doing things beforehand, or thinking of them. I even give myself credit for thinking of good works beforehand, even if I don't follow through. Arrogant, huh?

My idea of "good works" sometimes matches God's and sometimes doesn't. I often have to repent of complaining about the good works He has prepared for me to walk in. Take, for example, the good work of switching the laundry over instead of blogging longer.

Sure glad I'm not God. Aren't you?