2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:2-6
I am going to keep today’s post short and sweet. Short because I am writing this last minute and need to get it posted, and sweet because this is amazing news for all of us today. God started this whole thing in us, and He will finish it!
I often forget the simple things of Christianity, and this is one of them. God began the good work in me and will faithfully complete it! I won’t debate free will vs predestination with you but I will say that there is not one little bit of transformation in me that originated with me. If I had the power to make myself righteous, get rid of my sins, or empower myself to resist temptation I would not have needed the cross. If I could have saved myself, I would have. Trust me, I tried and failed over and over again.
Then God stepped in. He called my name and when I submitted myself to Him, He got to work. He began with sanctification and justification. He washed me clean and taught me how to get dirty less often. He let me trip and fall so that I could learn humility. A lesson I often need! He brought in teachers and leaders and moved me where He wanted me. He gives me dreams and visions, friends and the Bible, songs to sing, and then visits me when I sing them. We get closer and closer and I get more holy so that I can stay close.
I just wake up in the morning and submit and He plans my steps. He changes my heart and sets my trajectory. He is in charge of when and how I learn and grow. The fruit in my life changes and gets better and better because He is the gardener. I’m just the tree! I don’t do the pruning or the fertilizing, and I certainly don’t control the sun and rain.
I am only responsible for one thing. Obedience. I manage to mess that up frequently enough but even I can’t ruin this thing He started in me. I can blow it every day for the rest of my life and He will still do the work in me. He knows my future and He knows me, so He has a plan.
I can assure you that I am better than when He started with me, but sometimes it’s hard to believe that God can pull off what He needs to in this frequently hard heart of mine. That He will get me where I need to end up even with me fighting back half of the time. I see myself as too powerful and God as weaker than what He is when I do this.
The truth of the matter is that He is the all-powerful, perfect, always successful, loving, Ancient of Days. I am just along for the ride, thrilled to be chosen to be His daughter and His precious little clay pot in His enormous and skilled hands. I can’t wait to see what He does.
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