WORK IN PROGRESS

 

 

 

One day Billy and Ruth Graham were driving through a long stretch of road construction. They had numerous slowdowns, detours, and stops along the way. Finally they reached the end of all that difficulty and smooth pavement stretched out before them. Then a sign caught Ruth’s attention: “End of construction. Thanks for your patience.” She turned to Billy and told him that that phrase would be a fitting inscription for her tombstone someday.

Paul’s letter to the Philippians was written in prison but in the opening verses, it is not evident that Paul was in prison. His positive attitude concealed the difficulties he faced daily. Although he was not free to move about within society, he did not allow physical limitations to prevent him from being effective in ministry. Even while in bonds, he determined to advance the Gospel by every means available. When he could not physically visit the people of God he wrote letters to them and passionately prayed for them.

We often allow circumstances to hinder our service and witness for the Lord. It is easy to get discouraged and feel as if we are no longer effective in sharing the Gospel. We tend to develop a mindset that dictates our area of service and if that particular area is no longer available, we assume our service is over, we retire. The Church needs those with the desire and commitment of Paul, those who will seek to be used of the Lord regardless of present circumstances. There is always an opportunity to serve the Lord, regardless of our present environment or situation.

As Paul in that prison , thought of the beginning of God’s work among the Philippians, he thought of the day when that work would be complete. He wrote to them “being confident of this, He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). God takes the initiative in starting his work in us. Salvation always begins with God. We see this in Lydia’s conversion; according to Acts 16:14, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” God by his grace draws a sinner to himself and the sinner gets born again (Eph 8:8-9). But that is only the beginning of the Christian experience. There is still work to be done.

After salvation God starts transforming the saved person through a process. He starts removing the acts of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21) and the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) begins to grow. He starts refining the person to remove the impurities (Isa. 1:25), making the person progressively conformed to the image of His Son (2Cor. 3:18).  As he studies and practises God’s word, the word sheds light to the dark areas of his life (Psalm 119:130). As he puts to practice the word, he is transformed by the renewing of his mind proving  what is that good  and acceptable  and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:2). God continually changes his life from the inside out.

God uses his word to sanctify and cleanse believers so that someday he might present them to himself spotless and without any wrinkle (Eph 5: 25-27). His word is a mirror ( James 1:22-25); “God’s mirror” is not a mirror that shows us what we are as much as it shows us what we should become and what we should become is based on our picture of Christ.  The best and most enduring transformation comes into our life when we spend time prayerfully reading the word of God. He will be at work building our character and fortifying our faith even if we can’t see Him.

If you are truly born again, God has a “good work” that he intends to accomplish in your life.  He won’t let you stay as you are today. He’s going to keep chipping away at you until you are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. While we are alive, we’re under construction, let’s be patient with each other and with ourselves. We are not perfect, we are work in progress. God will continue His work on us; you can count on it. This work will not be complete until we die or are taken up in rapture.

Paul told Philippians that  God  would  carry on the work in them “to completion until the day of Jesus Christ” The Scripture does not regard man as perfect when in his body,  but resurrection bodies shall be revealed in perfection. Apostle John wrote “what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).

 We do not know what perfection looks like, but we shall know on the day of Jesus Christ when we see him face to face. On that day the work which God began in us will be completed.  We’ll stand before Him, fully mature having attained the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, perfectly reflecting him (Eph 4:13) . The silversmith knows that his work is complete and the silver is fully refined when he sees his own image reflected in it.  

Paul expressed his confidence in God’s ability to complete that work. The God who is powerful to save is also powerful to keep the ones He saves; this a very comforting thought.  Jesus said “my sheep...I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all, no one can snatch them out of my father’s hand” (John 10:27-29). Jude entrusted his people to he who “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 1:24),

The fact that God began and has the ability to complete the work in us does not imply that we are passive. God is at work, but we work with Him. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure ( Phil 2:12, 13). We have battles to fight and we must please the commanding officer. There is a race to be run and we must follow the rules and complete it successfully (2 Tim 2:4, 5). Only those who cooperate with God in the work will be presented blameless.  

Each of the seven churches in the book of revelation 2 and 3 had something that they needed to overcome or else they would miss a place in heaven. They were believers but they would not sail passively to heaven. To the church in Sardis the spirit said “yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy. He who overcomes will like them be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life (rev 3:4-5). In that church only a few were headed to heaven.

Paul had deep feelings for the Philippians, he told them, “I have you in my heart”. He could even call God as his witness regarding his deep affection for them (Phil 1:8). He says, "you all" three times in five verses. He prayed for ALL of them (v. 4), he had ALL of them in his heart (v. 7), and he longed for ALL of them (v. 8). He seems to says, “What I write, I write to all who are in Christ. What I pray, I pray for you all. What I think and feel, I think and feel towards you all. Paul’s desire and prayer was that when the book of life is read they would all be there. The God who saved you has the power to complete his work in you, cooperate with him and do your part.