Philippians 1:6 “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” This episode is about how God is not finished with you yet. He has a plan and even when we get off track He gets up back on track. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God’s Not Finished With You Yet
Philippians 1:6 “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
This seems to be something I have been hearing a lot over the past year. It is something that I have taken a lot of comfort in and I thought in case you hadn’t heard it, I would pass it along to you this morning. What I have been hearing over the past year is different variations of this verse. The consensus of all the different versions is, God isn’t through with you yet. You are still on the journey and He is still working with you to complete what He has started in you. Sometimes we can look at our circumstances and wonder what God was thinking. Maybe this is you right now. Maybe you are in stage in life where you wonder why God brought you here? Why He would allow these things to happen to you?
If this is you, then this verse is definitely for you. “I am confident that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” Why you are in this current place in your life is not something I have the answer to and it is not something that you may get the answer to either. However, you can be confident in the fact that God knows about the circumstance you find yourself in. He knows all that you are going through and He will bring you through it. He is not done His work in you yet. I heard someone say the other day that if you are in a place of suffering, the God isn’t done with you yet. He is not going to leave anyone in a place of suffering.
The visualization that just came to mind for me is one of someone writing a book, or a term paper. Usually if you are writing a book or a report, you don’t get it right on the first try. You write a chapter, and then you re-read it and make some changes. Then you re-read it and make a few more changes until you have your final copy. Another example is when a sculptor is making something. They mold the clay into what they think they want it to look like, and then they step back and look at it. Then they make a few adjustments and look at it again. Then they continue to make modifications on it until they are happy with the final product.
I am sure this is not exactly how God does it, but it is a visualization to help you get and idea of what I am talking about. God knows our future, He knows our past. He knows the person He created us to be. We can’t reach our full potential until are ready. God has a plan for each one of us. He has mapped out the best way for us to get there. Sometimes we don’t always follow His plan. Sometimes, we say no to God when He is asking us to do something that we don’t want to do. He gave us free will, so we can say no if we want to. However, when we do this we now creating our own time line instead of sticking to God’s. Whose time line do you think will be more efficient? I’m going to guess God’s would be.
God is not going to give up on us. He is going to patiently wait for us to turn back to Him and to trust Him again. Then he will get us back on track. Us saying no and going off track is unfortunately not a one time thing for most of us. We tend to be trucking along, doing what we feel God wants us to do and then out of no where, we get knocked off the track. Sometimes we don’t intentionally go off track, it just happens when we take our eyes off God and look to others. However, it happens, we somehow find ourselves in situations that we don’t like. God patiently waits for us to turn back to Him, to ask Him for help and then He gets us back on track. The visualization I just got in my head after saying that was-of those little trains that kids play with. I saw one fall off the track and then God reached over and picked it up with his thumb and forefinger and gently places it back on the track. This is what I believe God is continually do to us. We go off track and He gently places us back on track.
St. Paul wrote these letters to the Philippians while he was in jail. If anyone deserves to wonder why their life is going how it is going I think it would be Paul. He was preaching God’s Word. He was saying yes to all God asked him to do and yet he endured so much suffering. He went through a lot. Yet, he never lost faith. I love how he says in this verse that he is confident that the one who started a good work in you would bring it to completion. He knew, even while he was in jail that God was not done with him yet. St. Paul’s story could have ended when he went to jail, it could have ended when he was ship wrecked or when he was bitten by a snake. There were several instances that could have ended St. Paul’s life and his story, but they didn’t because God was not finished with him yet.
God is not finished with you yet either. Going through these circumstances that you are going through right now is going to make you stronger. I don’t know what they are preparing you for, but God does. Even if the thing you are going through wasn’t part of God’s original plan for you, He can still turn it around and use it for your good. He is that amazing! The reason I say some things might not have been part of God’s original plan for you is because as I mentioned earlier sometimes we go off course. I think when we do this sometimes God’s perfect will is not always carried out. Sometimes God’s permissive will is carried out instead.
For instance, if you are a parent you may have a great plan for your child’s future. This of course does not involve them going through any pain or suffering. However, we all know that kids don’t typically follow our script to the letter. They don’t date the perfect person that you picked out for them, they date the person that is all wrong for them. So, they get hurt. And although this wasn’t what you wanted for them, it was their choice and you can just be there to pick up the pieces and hope they learn from this mistake. This is sort of like our relationship with God. He knows what is best for us and yet sometimes we are just not quite ready to hear it so we do our own thing and God lets us experience the consequences of that action and hopes that we learn from our mistakes.
I know suffering is hard. I know it is not easy when we don’t understand why we are going through the things we are going through. I also know it is not always easy to have the faith that you will get though it. I love how confident St. Paul was. He didn’t say that God might not be finished with you yet, he didn’t say God might finish the good work that he started, he said he was confident that God would finish the good work he started in you. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind and there isn’t a doubt in my mind either. I hope that you can find some comfort in the fact that if you are not where you thought you would be or could be right now then God is not done with you yet. God has started a good work in each one of us and He will not stop until He has completed that good work. I believe that will be a life long mission and He will continue to perfect us until that glorious day when we get to be with Him in paradise.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us to follow you and to say yes to you. Help us to try and stay on your track instead of us trying to make our own. Lord you know what is best for us and we know this, so why do we fight it? If we are suffering right now Lord I ask that you be with us and you help us to know that you won’t leave us there. Help us to see that this is just a stop on the journey and that you are not done with us yet. We love you Lord, you are truly amazing. I am in awe at how you use everything that we go through for good. We are so grateful for the way you plan out our lives and even when we get off track you wait patiently for us to realize it and then you help us get back on track without making us feel bad about ourselves. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. This weeks character trait is something that I definitely struggle with. The goal this week is to learn how to be more committed. The article is about how to be more committed to your commitments. (CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE) We all have things that we have committed to God that we would do. Are we doing them? Could we be doing better with those commitments? Those are the things we could examine this week. Only 3 more weeks, counting this one, can you believe it? I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!