COMPLETED

Day 26 – Who He Says I Am Series

“being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

– Philippians 1:6

In Christ – 

YOU ARE COMPLETED BY CHRIST

At an educator’s event that I attended recently, we were asked to look at a circle and describe what came to mind. Take a moment to think about what comes to your mind. A ball? Planets? The sun? A porthole of a ship? Among other things, we talked about geometry, science, and geography. We talked about 2 dimensional vs 3 dimensional figures. We talked about ripples in a pond and we talked about a ring on a finger and how it has no beginning and no end. At that point, a wise and dear friend of mine who is also a fellow educator named Brandie Brown, brought up the contrast of a line and a circle. She talked about how a line (or a line segment more specifically) starts at one point and ends at another, but a circle is different. She brought up that a circle is complete. You see the whole thing at once and in that moment she reminded us that this is the way God sees us. She said that on earth we tend to look at ourselves and our circumstances linearly, but God’s perspective is different. He sees the end from the beginning. Time has no binding on Him for He operates outside of space and time. When we look at ourselves linearly we often see the moment we were born, certain meaningful events both good and bad, the moment we became a believer, and the struggles we face. But God sees it differently. He sees the whole thing. The finished product. He is the Author and the Perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2) and He sees us in the perfection. Take a moment to stop and see how He sees. Do you see the circle? Do you see your life in this new light? It’s complete. You are complete. In Him you have been made whole. I’m reminded of Ephesians 1:4 where the apostle Paul says, “Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.” (NLT)

Which words stand out to you? “Even before He made the world,” immediately stands out to me affirming that God is outside of space and time.  I also love “holy and without fault in His eyes.” These words confirm that when He looks at you, what He sees is holy, blameless, righteous, and whole because you are in Christ. Because of Jesus, you are complete. That is who you are. And the words that are left, “God loved us and chose us in Christ.” These are the most important words of all. You are complete because of Him.. You are complete because of His love and His choosing. You are complete because of Jesus. Jesus completed a perfect work on the cross. Because He authored our faith, we have become brand new. It is He who completed the work, and it is He that earned perfect righteousness in your place and imputed it to you as a free gift. (Philippians 3:9) All of the work has been done by Him who chose you, loves you, and works through you.

COMPLETED BY CHRIST- is your Identity!

Daily Reminder

You don’t have to work to be Completed by Christ, you already are Completed by Christ because Christ gave you a new identity. His identity. This is who you are because of who He is, not who you have to try to become.

– Religion tells us what to do to become, which equals self reliance – the focus is on self.

– The truth of the Gospel tells us who we are because of who Jesus is and what He did – the focus is on Jesus.

Good News  – Our Father in heaven is pleased with you because of what Jesus did – it all hinges on Him not us.

We are in union with Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17). When our Daddy in heaven looks at you, He sees Jesus, and He is nothing but pleased. (Matthew 3:17)

Rest in Him today

Lord of Lords,

Thank You for completing me. The word complete suggests that prior to completion something was missing. You completed the part of me that was missing out of love. You didn’t see the missing part as a problem for me to be ashamed of, but as a reason to embrace me. You see the end from the beginning and You call it good. Thank You Jesus!