Our conflict with divine purpose - Audio

It has been said that our prayers are not answered not when we have received what we have ask, but when we are challenged to be what we can be. Jesus grew up in a carpenter's shop. One of the things about wood working is how much can be hidden in a piece of wood. There is much hidden in a piece, and that it takes a lot of work and effort to transform a common piece of wood into something beautiful. The flaws and blemishes in a piece of wood are not evident until the work begins. Transformation is not something that happens in a moment of time. What is in us is often obscured by what we are. What we have the capacity to become is hidden behind what and who we are. Even so, God calls us with a divine purpose and a divine idea for what we are to become. LIke the wood worker, He has to work through many things to get us to where He wants us to be. When he began working with Simon Peter, he had to start with someone with a vile tongue. He couldn't simply remove it, because then Peter would not have been Peter. Like Peter, we are all a work in progress. God has work around our flaws and deficiencies to achieve His purpose. God has to work though a lot of stuff to make us what He needs us to be. Within every one of us is a framework and capacity for better things. God made us the way we are so that we will fulfill His divine purpose. In every human heart is an imprint of God. We are all made in HIs likeness. If we submit to his working an will, that better man or woman will be revealed. In our text, Jesus addresses him as Simon Bar-Jona, but in the next verse, he is Peter upon whom the church will be built. The Peter we first meet and get to know is not someone that anyone of us would anticipate amounting to anything in the kingdom of God. Oh, but the work and transformation that took place in Peter's life. There was a better man in Simon-Peter and Jesus was intent in bringing it out. That same divine purpose in Simon-Peter, is in us. God knows there are flaws in us, but He works that into His overall plan. The transformation is not an overnight process. It is a lot of trial and error. It is one step forward, and two steps back. It is a lot of prayer. We must not give up before God finishes His work. As much as we may think it is hopeless, God is not finished. It takes time for God to work it out. He has not written us off. He is trying to reveal in us the beauty that is hidden inside.