Outsourcing

Most everyone these days is familiar with outsourcing, the practice of contracting work to another individual or firm who can do it better, or for less cost, or with less risk, etc. My own company oursources IT operations and development.

Outsourcing is nothing new. It's common in a market-driven economy. The South has recently lost a lot of employment to foreign firms who operate at lower cost, but was itself the outsourcer on those jobs a century ago when lower costs took the jobs from the North.

But outsourcing is still older than that. God is the original outsourcer:

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil. 1:6).

"I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts." (Jer. 31:33)

The essence of the New Testament is that God Himself will do His work in the lives of believers. Often times we think that we have to be really good at this or at that, or that we have to try really hard to do something just right. That is law; the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Basically, God has outsourced to Himself the work of transforming our lives. We try to take it back but find out we can't do it. But when we allow His Spirit to invade our hearts in a particular area, confessing (not admitting) our sins, He can do a complete work.

There's an old saying that says "If you want something done right, do it yourself." That just about sums it up from God's viewpoint - if God does it, it will be done right.

This is one time that outsourcing is OK.