A WORK IN PROGRESS
WRITTEN BY DR. JADE PROVAN

That’s me, a work in progress, I am definitely not what I was, but, also I have very definitely not arrived. I know of course that not until that day comes that I enter into the realms of heaven, at the end of life on this earth, I wont have arrived, that my time here on this earth is all about the journey, about learning how to overcome my weaknesses, about being a witness of the grace of God on my life, a witness of the power of the Holy Spirit in my life, about telling everyone that the only thing going to ever make any sense out of life is the gospel, Christ Jesus and his word The Holy Bible.

Yes definitely, a work in progress, that’s what we all are every one of us called by the name Christian, believers in the living son of God. I can obviously only speak of myself, as I cant know what is happening inside each and every one of you, so, speaking for me, I am soooo grateful, and will be so, for everlasting eternity, for the grace of God that has caused there to be so much to thank him for, without God I know that I know that I am and would be nothing. I am nothing special without him, have no particular talent without him, cannot achieve anything particular without him, cannot communicate without him, all in all without him I am truly lost and would be in tre desole throughout Eternity. Its him that has got me to where I am today in the journey, and it will be him, by his grace, that will get me safely to heaven at the end of this journey on earth.

I know now that I am fearfully and wonderfully made as the Bible puts it, that God’s hand was involved in me, and that he doesn’t make mistakes, but hey I can certainly tell you its seemed like such a long struggle coming to that knowledge, a long struggle for me of repeated attempts to feel acceptable to God. Like most people I have done stuff I am not proud of, behaved in ways that I find just plain ugly, had attitudes and opinions that were way off base, and had a difficult time of believing in this God loving accepting me thingy. I was five when it was announced to me that I was a mistake, I can remember the impact of the knowledge that I was not wanted, of how cold it all felt, not knowing exactly what I had done, why my mother wanted to say that and much more than that to me. Childhood taught me lessons that have taken God, a great partner, and a lot of effort to undo. Stuff that happened to me caused scars that went on in adult life, truly and honestly if I can do the stuff that God has helped me to do, then definitely so can you. You have to know this, he is sooo faithful, and sooo capable of helping all of us overcome whatever is in our past or present. Good news is HE IS ABLE to do far beyond what any of us can ever think or contain as possibility, it takes this though, believing that he is and that he wants to sort us out, being desperate or desperately desirous of being different, changed from where we are into something a lot better than before. Sometimes those of us who are worst off are actually best off because at least we are so definitely and despairingly in need that we are more certainly seeking help, God doesn’t respond well to lazy half hearted attitudes, and when you are really seriously in trouble you don’t have time for half hearted attempts, you are to busy needing whatever help you can get, and as quickly as you can get it.

Often people want to know how to have what I have, my first question back is, how much do you want what I have? To me, what I am in so many ways is just what I am, as I said before, I am the result totally of the grace of God changing me into something that he can use. The best bit of advice that I can think of, if you want God to use you, is give yourself over to the Holy Spirit totally for instruction, give yourself over to the word of God for teaching, and get yourself a mentor, someone you can trust, to guide you in the things of life that you are going to need guidance in. No man is an island, and I watch a lot of people going off the rails, just because they are not prepared to listen to what anyone else has to say to them, there are just some times things that we don’t always see about ourselves, or situations, that someone outside ourselves can see easily. Having a humble heart will lay a foundation for you to be able to get the council that you are going to need sometime in life.

King David in the Bible was said to have a heart after Gods own heart, here is a man with the holy anointing on his life, who even so, knew how to humble himself in the presence of God, when he got stuff screwed up in life, he didn’t take an attitude against what he was told, but accepted with grace whatever God needed to say to him, just as we all as works in progress, will have times when we just have everything go wrong in our lives, and we know that we have done wrong, and made bad choices. When we, all of us reach that point that we go wrong in some way or another, that’s when I and you are in need of that humble heart, accepting where we have gone wrong, sorting it out and moving on. God is always generous with forgiveness, but remember, we are not meant to use the grace of God as license to do just whatever we want to, there is always right and wrong, good and evil. Choose in your lives, you can; you know the right way and goodness, its going to make the journey much better for you all.

As I said at the beginning ,we are all works in progress, dependent on God for an Eternity, without him we can do nothing, with him we can do all things, including seeing the changes happening in our lives that we all long for. It just takes a bit of Faith DAILY to see amazing changes in our lives all of us, I am not the only person who can change through my life each and everyone of us are equally loved by God and are equally on a journey through our lives. God is no respecter of persons, what he does for me he will equally do for you, if you want him too with all your heart. I don’t believe that any of us should ever be totally happy with where we are in life as none of us have arrived whilst we are still on this earth. The time to sit back and relax is going to be that moment when we meet him face to face, and Hallelujah hear those words ‘well done my good and faithful servant’. That day for each of us will mean that no longer will we be works in progress, but that we will have finished the race and be looking forward to an eternity of future, bliss, paradise and the literal presence of the son of the living God. Amen