Reading: Philippians chapter 1
Spotlight: Philippians 1:6

It never ends…

If there is anything I have learned in my life, it is that I can count on God’s promises. I didn’t always feel that way. I used to think they were just fortune cookie, feel good, gift card inspiring little sayings. I hadn’t yet allowed them to take root in my life and become a motivating factor that would drive me through storms and hardships. I think we often read God’s promises and give our ‘mental assent’ and shout amen but we don’t put them on and wear them to work.
Paul begins the verse by saying, “being confident of this…” He didn’t doubt this promise. He was secure in the knowledge of the promise. He counted on it. As much as you count on getting in your car and starting it up and expecting it to take you to work. I concede that some of may not have much confidence in our vehicles at all, and probably with good reason. But my point is to say for the most part we have confidence in certain things that we just expect and don’t walk around all day doubting if they will happen. If you have been at your job for a very long time, I am certain that you don’t walk in to work every morning expecting that this is the day you will be fired. No, you show up to work, confident that you have seniority and security in your job. This is the kind of confidence that Paul is referring to. It is also the kind of confidence that we as believers must develop if we are ever going to walk in and see the fulfillment of these promises in our lives.
The second thing about this verse that I find interesting is that it says the work God began in us will be carried on until completion until the day of Christ Jesus. There are two things that strike me about this statement:
First, the work never ends. When I got saved, I was 6 years old. I went to church until I was about 14 and then had some wilderness years but recommitted my life to the Lord in about 1994. There were seasons in my life that I didn’t feel like God’s work in me was present at all. I certainly didn’t feel like it was moving forward in a progressive manner. But in hindsight, I see now that he was always there with me, even in the season of rebellion and separation from His will when I was trying to forget there was a God because of my sin and shame. I was drowning in a life of drug and alcohol abuse. Yet, He was still there. Something occurred during that season of rebellion and separation. I know this because one day, one seemingly random day in my empty life that I was living, I looked up to heaven and I remembered. I remembered that I was created for something more. He plucked me out of that life and restored me. My restoration certainly didn’t happen over night. There was rehab, AA, a season of readjusting to sobriety and very strict discipleship and mentoring by my pastors. But in all that the work that God had begun in me at 6 years old never ceased.
Secondly, Paul states that the work will go on until the day of Jesus Christ. We can never say we have arrived. If there was anyone who could boast of their status or experience or their Godliness it was Paul. In II Corinthians 11:16-33 Paul gives his spiritual resume of sufferings for the kingdom. There are few people that have ever lived that can even come close to Paul’s suffering for Christ or his commitment to the preaching of the gospel .But even he acknowledged that he was a work in progress. It is a quite humbling revelation. So the next time you feel like you have earned some right to tout your spirituality over another remember that we are all a work in progress and we’re not finished until we meet our Savior. I can hardly wait.

How to pray this scripture:

*Normally I use the same scripture for pray but verse 9 is such a great verse to pray let’s use that one!

Dear Lord Jesus, I pray that my love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that I might be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. Than k you Lord for you promises. Thank you that you have begun a work in me and that you are faithful to complete it. I pray for strength to rely on this promise even when it seems like I’m not moving forward because your promises are always true. I thank you for your spirit that works in me and I thank you for your abounding love for me in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Additional Scriptures:

II Corinthians 11:16-33
Ephesians 2:10
Colossians 1:10
II Timothy 2:21
Hebrews 13:20-21