being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6
We’re all on a journey in this life. We’re all going from one place to another. We started where we were born and then started a series of moves. Moving from the hospital to home. From one home to another. And then another. And then another.
During that journey of places, we were also on a whole bunch of other journeys. At first, we drank milk. Then it was soft foods mixed in with milk. Then it was more solid food. Then we started biting and chewing what was given to us. Eventually, we started picking out what we wanted to eat for ourselves.
But our journey didn’t stop there. At first, our hands were a mystery to us. Something just to stick in our mouths. Then we started to hold onto a finger. Then a hand. We learned how to grab onto things and use them. With practice, we were able to hold just about anything, open jars, write, type, and play instruments.
All of these things, and more, were not immediately learned and mastered at the drop of a hat. There wasn’t a magic pill that we took and, boom, we mastered something. There wasn’t an app that we downloaded and, all of a sudden, we could do something entirely new.
It’s a process. One thing building on top of another. One event after another. One thing building on top of another. You learn one chord. Then another. And then another. You start putting them together and all of a sudden, you’ve learned a song.
And along the way, through all this learning and growing, there were bumps in the road. There were mistakes. You dropped the ball. You missed the shot. You misunderstood the directions and made a mistake. Some of these misses, these mistakes were small and unimportant. Some were whoppers, never-to-be-forgotten blunders.
I have a skill that I’ve practiced all my life. A unique ability that has taken years and years of training and preparation. Through countless repetitions, I’ve come to the point in my life that I have this unique skill that sets me apart from just about everyone else on planet Earth.
I can put things together completely backwards like there’s no tomorrow. Some of my more memorable achievements include installing curtains backward. I’ve installed a wooden door that swings the wrong way, blocking the light switch. I’ve also installed a glass shower door backward, trapping me inside.
Yes, failure is on the road of life. But it’s never meant to stop us. It’s a lesson learned, a stop along the way to getting better. Toward learning. A building block that helps us develop toward someone new. With growing skill. More talent. Greater maturity.
Paul had been with the Philippians for a while. They had gone through the ups and downs of life. They had worked together. Prayed together. Grown together. There was both success and failure together.
And somewhere along the way, Paul came to a place. A great place. A destination to be sought after. It’s a spot to be desired and looked for. To be worked towards. It was based on his first-hand experience.
Paul more than knew, he had been persuaded that God was at work in the Philippians. Which is great all by itself. But there was more to it than that. Sometime in the past, he had come to a deep conviction that God wasn’t done with them. Paul knew way down in his soul that God had more in store for the Philippians.
And this wasn’t just some idle thought bouncing around in Paul’s head. Oh no. This was burned deep into his very being. Paul knew and had experienced some of the good ways that God had been working in the lives of the Philippians.
With that same kind of knowledge and assurance, he also knew that God was going to continue with those good works. God wasn’t done with them, God was still in the business of building them up and using them in his kingdom.
God wasn’t putting the Philippians on the shelf, just to collect dust. God wasn’t putting them out to pasture, just to walk aimlessly around, with their heads down in the dirt, eating grass. There was to be action and activity until everything was completed. The only time that the growing and working stopped was a day that Paul called “the day of Jesus Christ.”
Will we hear these words? Will we let them sink into our heads and hearts?
God’s plan for you isn’t to sit around on the sidelines of life. No matter who you are, what you’ve done, your age and abilities, there’s work to be done. There’s growth to be achieved.
God started a good work in you. He began it. He died for us. He put his Holy Spirit in us. He’s made an eternal investment in you and me. But we have a choice. We might have put him on pause. Maybe it’s only been a few minutes or days since we turned away. Maybe it’s been years.
It doesn’t matter. There’s still time. There’s full forgiveness available in Jesus Christ. So, what’s stopping you from getting back up and getting back together with God? So you both can get to where he wants to take you.
Comments