The Finished Product

  

Phil 1:3-6

 

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

NKJV

 

I just love the way the Apostle Paul writes.  Every remembrance; always in every prayer; for you all- I love the all-encompassing nature of his prayers.  It inspires me to a loftier prayer life.  But verse six is the verse that always inspires me.  Because, to be honest, I  need to be  reminded to remain confident about God's work in my life.

 

I am a very analytical person.  My psychology classes would say that I am a "self-actualizing" person.  I know every weakness, tendency and pet peeve of mine.  Because of that, I can struggle with feeling a perpetual sense of being a mess.  A hopeless tangle of complex personality traits that fall short of God's  best- that is how I see myself a lot of the time.  But then I am reminded, especially by these verses, that I am no great challenge to God.  He fixes messes like me all of the time.

 

This verse exhorts me that I can even be confident that God will complete the good work He has begun in me.  I have a bag full of crochet projects began, but left unfinished.  I have several journals purchased and written in faithfully for just a few days, then left undone.  We humans are more starters than finishers.  Not so with God.  If He starts it, you can take it to the bank, He will finish  it.  Our part is to confidently believe.  And to cooperate with the program.

 

 Dear Lord, here I am.  Mess and all.   Work in me.  Change me.  Create a finished project that brings you glory.   In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

 

 

 

Complete

 

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.  But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense- Jesus Christ, the righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world.  We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.  The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: …”  I John 2:1-4 

If we obey the Bible, that is the “proof in the pudding” that God’s love is in us.  It is easy to give lip service to the love of God, but much harder to walk it out.  The love of God restrains our tongue, tamps down our temper, and causes us to look beyond someone else’s faults.  The love of God enables and inspires us to put the Bible into action in our life.

There are so many levels in the Lord.  When we first become a Christian, we start out just like newborn babies, but in the Spirit.  But as we mature, learn more of his Word, and grow in the knowledge of God, we become increasingly grown-up in Christ.  After a season of growth, he calls us to go deeper still.  The Bible speaks of us going from “glory to glory.”  It must be our goal to allow Jesus to be “truly made complete in us.” I do not want there to be 3% Jesus and 97% me.  I want him to be the primary influence in my life.  I want to be hidden in Christ.  But, oh, that is work!  Dying to self, putting on the character of Christ, interacting with people following the “what would Jesus do?” pattern is attainable.  We just have to want it more than we want our own way.

Obedience is a skill that becomes easier as we put it into practice.  A mature Christian does not ask himself/herself whether they feel like doing what the Bible says. They just look at the Bible like a soldier would a military superior.  It is an order to be followed.

I was disciplining our youngest the other day, and he kept pleading his case with me the whole time I was talking.  After a while I said to him, “When I get on to you, the only thing I want to hear from you is: “Yes, Ma’am.”  That means that he does not try to persuade me that I am wrong or get his way.  He just acknowledges what I am saying and agrees to comply.  That is really what the Lord expects from us.  We see in his Word what he requires and we say “Yes, sir.”  No argument, no negotiation.  Just enough humility to know he is always right and should be respected and obeyed.

Lord, help me to be quick to obey.  I truly desire for your love to be made complete in me.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

Sherri