Complete

This week's word from Kate is: complete 

When I first read today's word, a song started playing in my head. It is one we used to sing in church sometimes, and it digs deep into the truths of Scripture: that we are complete not because of what we can do, but because of what Christ has already done for us.

Complete in Thee! no work of mine
May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine;
The blood hath pardon bought for me,
And I am now complete in Thee.

Yea, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
The blood hath pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too, shall be!

Singing the song this morning, I was reminded that the growth I have seen recently in my own life is 100% God's work. As I learn how to get out of His way and let Him work in my life by refining me and pruning me, then the Holy Spirit that resides in me can shine through. 

My life is not my own, no matter how many times I foolishly try to take up the reigns and order myself around. My life is hidden in Christ. That means my outside sometimes still looks a bit ragged, like the coreopsis in this picture, but inside, in my heart, where the real work in happening, I am being transformed into something beautiful. Something Christ-like that will spread the seeds of the Gospel. I have been justified, and now I am being sanctified, all in God's perfect timing.

That is what it means to be complete.