Did you show your work?

(An apology to Math Teachers everywhere)

Did you show your work?

I hated that question…

I never understood why math teachers wanted you to write out your work. If I got the right answer what was the difference!?

I realize now that there is more to life than the right answer. Getting there and how you got there are both important.

In writing out your work, you rehearse and confirm the correct paths. When you show your work, you show that you understand the core principles necessary for greater challenges in the future.

The life of prayer is the process of showing your work for the answer Jesus provided.

The Gospel of Christ changes everything about our lives. Christians have been given a different way of seeing the world in the truth that is taught in Jesus. The truth that there is life beyond the grave because Jesus conquered the grave sets new horizons for our dreams. The Gospel recalibrates our destination to the New Creation.

The Gospel also recalibrates the way we make the journey. The self-authenticating and self-indulging life of the world has been condemned by Jesus on the cross. The life of submission to God and service to others has been proven worthy in Jesus’ resurrection.

Christians are not merely people with a heavenly destination. We must be people with daily dependence. The way we get through life, and to the new creation, is submission to God and service to others just like Jesus Christ. This requires dependence on the Spirit of Christ.

This new way of living is “showing the work” of the Spirit of Christ until we see the final answer of Jesus finished work. If we have been justified, we will most surely be rescued from the coming wrath. In the meantime, the Spirit will show the work of Christ in us.

The Spirit will show His work through the life of prayerful submission to God and service to others. When the lies of the old way of living call out to us, we remind our hearts of the truth in Christ. When we want to grab hold of our desires now in our own strength, we return to the hope of the new creation in prayer.

Jesus has already given the final answer– “It is finished!” In prayer we embrace how the Spirit is showing Jesus’ work in us.

God is a wise teacher with wonderful plans for you. The Holy Spirit is rehearsing and confirming the correct paths in you as He prepares you for a greater stewardship in the new creation.

The world is focused on “getting there.” The people of God should be focused on who we are when we “get there.”

We live this transformative process of showing God’s work out through the life of prayer.

Are you showing His work?