God Will Finish What He Started

Philippians 1: 6

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the Day of Christ Jesus.

This verse is and has been so precious to me. 

God is the one who started to work on me when He put into my heart to seek the Truth, even though I didn't know that He is Truth. 

And He worked His Redemption in me on that day He showed me Jesus on the Cross, and I knew He took my place there. 

And He has continued to work in my life, my attitudes, my circumstances; through all the decades--every year, every month, every day, even every moment of every day. He never rests. 

He has been working in me, on me, with me, and even through me, all this time. He has never left me, for even a moment, He's kept His promise. 

Philippians 2: 13

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. 

God is the One who works in each one of His children, in the Person of His Holy Spirit. He is the One who woos us to want to do His works, and He gives us the ability to work toward His purposes for us. 

He is the One who has Loved us first (I John 4:19), and has chosen us before He even started to create (Ephesians 1:4). We're in His Plan. 

He planned out everything He would do, before He even started. Like my son, whose second grade teacher thought he was daydreaming, when he was thinking through the whole project before starting to write it down. 

[Our little children teach us so much about God!]

God is in control, but He has still given us a free will. We can choose to do things His way, even when it's hard for us or costs us, and reap the rewards for doing so, furthering His program.

Or if we refuse to cooperate with Him, His plan will still be carried out, but we will suffer loss (Esther 4:13-14). 

How much better for us to align ourselves with the Lord of the Universe, and think the way He thinks, and live our lives according to His attitudes and reasonings. 

When we understand how He has fashioned this Earth for us to build our World upon it, and we cooperate with His Laws (natural and moral) to form our societies; then we all will reap all the benefits He put here for us to find. 

But when we decide that we "know better" and want to do things some kind of newfangled way, then we find that it doesn't work like the "old-fashioned" way. It may benefit some people in some ways, but it will tend to pull down the rest of the population. 

God wants all of us to prosper. And He wants all of us to know Him and His ways, so we can prosper.

It's our enemy who wants to kill, steal and destroy. And he has killed millions of people before they could even be born. And he has stolen the bounty of this Earth from many millions (billions?) of people all over the World. And he is still at work destroying our relationships in our families, so that our society and civilization will crumble. 

This enemy will continue to kill more and more, and steal more and more, and destroy more and more, and he knows his time is short, so he is more furious than ever at his dastardly schemes. 

O my Father, I pray that You would continue to work in all of Your children to want to seek Your Face, to curl up in Your lap and listen to Your bedtime stories. 

You are our good Father, Father, and You Love us more than we could ever imagine! The good You want for us is better than we would ever want, because this World has surrounded us all our lives. And You know how strong is the pull of our own flesh we live in. 

Father, strengthen us in Your Spirit. Help us to gain the victory over our own fleshly desires, to want only what You have determined is the best for us. 

Don't let any of Your children fall prey to any of the lies of our enemy, Father. You are so much greater than he is, and Your strength overpowers him at every turn. 

O Father, teach each one of Your children to turn to You for their every need, for the answer to every problem; and to imbibe, to drink in, the milk of Your Word, that they may grow thereby. And then to chew on the steak of Your Word, to grow up in the Spirit, and learn to be Your princes and princesses.

Father, Your plans for us are so much better than whatever plans we may devise for ourselves. We live in Time, Your view is Eternity. Time is just a moment, in view if Eternity. We tend to be so short-sighted, Father; let us put on Your "glasses" to see Your ways distinctly, and not be so myopic, or have deceptive rose-colored glasses. Teach us to see the reality, the Truth of what comes into our little worlds. 

Then we will choose Your ways, Father, and we will grow up, learning all the lessons in this school of life You placed us in. And we will mature into Your kings and queens to sit with King Jesus on His Throne, ruling all the Kingdom of God in all the Universes You will create throughout all Eternity Future. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!