Presentation is Everything!

Have you ever followed a recipe so closely so as not to miss one important ingredient and then wondered why your "finished product" did not appear just as the beautifully adorned photograph in the picture?  I have!  No one told me I'd need a sprig of parsley, a lemon wedge, and a fancy drizzling device to make my plate appear EXACTLY as the picture!  Sometimes we have all the right ingredients, but we lack something in the presentation.


3-4 Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.  (2 Peter 1:3-4 The Message)


There are times when we know we have all the "right ingredients" which go into living for Christ, but wonder about the "presentation".  The stuff which "go into" making us strong in the Lord, building us up, and producing the image of Christ in us is all there - we have the right ingredients.  Yet, we lack just a little in the presentation!  We can possess all the right ingredients - if it is not presented well, it just does not have the same "appeal".  The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to help us with the "presentation". 


Presentation is everything!  We can present almost anything as reality - we simply have to believe it well enough to "present" it in a convincing matter.  We have been given all things in Christ Jesus (vs. 3).  What we "do" with what we have been given determines the "finished product".  Not sure how to live a godly life - don't fret - you have been given all things you need!  Now we need a "tutor" to assist us with the "ingredients" and the "presentation"!


We are enabled to share in the divine image of Christ - simply by the gift of all God provides in giving us everything which goes into a life of pleasing God!  We don't even need to "find" the ingredients - he gives them all to us.  Do you ever remember going into the Home Economics classroom, finding a recipe laid out on the counter, and then finding all the ingredients you'd need right there?  It is kind of like that with God - he does all the prep work for us!


Our "mind's eye" may see the ingredients coming together in one way - while God's "divine eye" sees them in quite a different way!  Because our mind is limited, we just don't consider all the ways God sees his graces coming together into a glorious presentation of his goodness and love in us.  God knows best how to display his graces in our lives - he is the master of "presentation".  We'd do well to trust him with it!


Our part in the process is the "leaving" - we leave the things which corrupt - those choices which would "taint" the freshness and goodness of what God is creating within.  The promise of what lays ahead is enough to "wet our appetites" for the outcome of his creation!  Nothing compares to the life which has been prepared for those who trust Christ Jesus!

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