God changes us for the better

God knows what is best for us and longs to help us. When we focus on God’s Word, we will have wisdom in our daily decisions. Colossians 1:9-14 describes expertly what a long-term desire to follow God in our lives will bring. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

​There is an old saying that our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another. The saying should really be that our potential is one thing. What God can do with it is quite another. With God’s strength we have unlimited potential. It is important that we do not get caught listening to the lies of the devil that tell us that we are no good and have no worth. God loves each one of us and each one of us is valuable to Him! In 1921, Myra Brooks Welch wrote a wonderful poem that lets Christians know of their worth as a child of God.

​The Touch of the Master’s Hand
​
Twas battered and scarred and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.
 
“What am I bid, good folk?” he cried.
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar…now two…only two…
Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?
 
Three dollars once, three dollars twice,
Going for three”…but no!
From the room far back a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow.
 
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
As sweet as an angel sings.
 
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said, “What am I bid for the old violin?”
As he held it up with the bow.
 
“A thousand dollars…and who’ll make it two?
Two…two thousand, and who’ll make it three?
Three thousand once and three thousand twice…
Three thousand and gone!” said he.
 
The people cheered, but some exclaimed
“We do not quite understand…
What changed it’s worth?” And the answer came;
“Twas the touch of the master’s hand.”
 
And many a person with soul out of tune
And battered and scarred by sin
Is auctioned cheap by the thoughtless crowd
Just like the old violin.
 
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul, and the change that is wrought
By the touch of the master’s hand.
 
O Master! I am the tuneless one
Lay, lay Thy hand on me,
Transform me now, put a song in my heart
Of melody, Lord, to Thee!