One of the things I have always failed to understand is why Christians fall into the trap of copying others rather than allowing God to develop them into the unique and creative expression of Jesus that He has designed for them. Emulation may be the sincerest form of flattery but it short cuts God’s design for a person’s life. He didn’t create them to be a carbon copy of someone else. He created them to be an unique expression of His creativity in and of themselves.

 

Whether we are talking about our life among our friends, family, or co-workers, or we are talking about our presence on the internet, we need to be that creative expression that God has called us to be. If we do not do this then at best we are being insincere and phony, lacking authenticity and inspiration, and at worst, we are plagiarizing  and stealing intellectual property. Either way it gives the appearance of evil or is in actuality, evil. So let’s take a look at how God has created you to be an unique and special creation that He uses in ways that cannot be found in another person.

 

God Created You Unique

 

Psalm 139:14

New Living Translation (NLT)

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

 

The Psalmist is acknowledging the creativity of God in his life. God has made each of use wonderfully complex. We are all unique creations. As such, we are all created uniquely to accomplish His purposes for us in this life. That is why copying or emulating what somebody else does is not a good idea. God’s expression through them is not going to fit for you. You are not them. Not only will it not fit you, but it will not accomplish the same purpose. God’s design for your life is not the same as the design for someone else’s life.

 

You are God’s workmanship

 

Ephesians 2:10

New Living Translation (NLT)

10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

 

You are God’s masterpiece. He is working on you and forming you into a masterpiece that goes way beyond what Michelangelo was able to produce. Every time that you try to make yourself into a clone of someone else, you are telling God that He does not know what He is doing. You are saying that you know better than God how He wants to use you and how He wants to do it. You are seriously telling the potter how the pot should be formed.

 

Isaiah 29:16

New Living Translation (NLT)

16 How foolish can you be?

He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay!

Should the created thing say of the one who made it,

“He didn’t make me”?

Does a jar ever say,

“The potter who made me is stupid”?

 

God in His foreknowledge knows exactly how you need to be formed in order to accomplish His tasks He has for you. When you take short cuts and try to just copy what God is doing with another, you are not allowing Him to form you. It is extremely important to allow God to use you how He has made you. Consider what would have happened if the Apostle Paul just decided to clone himself after Peter or Barnabas. Do you think we would have had 1/2 of the New Testament?

 

Acts 20:24

New Living Translation (NLT)

24 But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

 

Paul had work assigned to Him by the Lord. He was given that task by the Lord Himself. He would not have accomplished that assignment if He had done it any other way than how God created Him to accomplish it.

 

So I want to encourage you. If you have been trying to take shortcuts and just get your ideas, your creativity, your tasks by copying what others are doing, please stop. Take the time to seek the Lord Himself for your tasks, ask Him for how He would want you to accomplish that task, allow His creativity to flow through you. I think you will find both what you are doing much more pleasurable and you will see greater fruit for His kingdom in the process.

 

Blessings!

 

Pastor Duke

 

This article on God and creativity was first published on my website Taber’s Truths.

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