In today’s Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer, the Apostle Paul offers these well-known words:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

One of my favorite authors offers this perspective on what these words teach us:

     You are not your handiwork; your life is not your project. Your life is God’s project. God thought you up, and He knows what you were intended to be. He has many good works for you to do, but they are not the kind of “to do” lists we give spouses or employees. They are signposts to your true self.

Your “spiritual life” is not limited to certain devotional activities that you engage in. It is receiving power from the Spirit of God to become the person God had in mind when He created you–His handiwork.

God made you to flourish–to receive life from outside yourself, creating vitality within yourself, and producing blessing beyond yourself.

John Ortberg
The Me I Want to Be (p.14)

How is God’s grace enabling you to flourish today? What has He already done so that you can “receive life from outside yourself”? In what ways are you experiencing “vitality within yourself”? (And what “vitality blockers” might you need to let go of or commit to Him in prayer?) What opportunities do you have today to “produce blessing beyond yourself”?

May you flourish today – by relying on the grace that makes our flourishing possible.