July 16; Energy for To – Do’s

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in
you, both to will and to work for HIS good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)
But believing this does not make Christians passive. It makes them hopeful and
energetic and courageous.
Each day there is a work to be done in our special ministry. Paul commands us to
work at doing it. But he tells us how to do it in the power that God supplies:
believe him! Believe the promise that in this day God will be at work in you to will
and work for HIS good pleasure.
It is God Himself, graciously at work each moment that brings the promise of
future grace into our present experience. It is not the gratitude for past grace that
paul focuses on when explaining how we work out our salvation. I mention this
simply because so many Christians, when asked what the motive is for obedience,
will say gratitude. But that is not what paul emphasizes when he talks about
motive and power for our working. He focuses on faith in what God is yet to do,
not just what He has done.
Workout your own salvation! Why? How? For there is fresh grace for every
moment from God. He is at work in your willing and doing every time you will and
do.
Believe that for the challenges of the next hour and the next thousand years. The
power of future grace is the power of the living Christ--- always there to work for
us at every future moment that we enter. So when Paul describes the effect of
the grace of God that was with him, he says,” I will not venture to speak of
anything except what Christ has accomplished thru me to bring the gentiles to
obedience--- by word and deed” (Romans 15:18)
He would not dare to speak of anything but what Christ accomplished …. of what
grace accomplished thru his ministry (1 Corinthians 15:10), this must mean that
the power of Christ.
Which means that the power we need for the next five minutes and the next five
decades of ministry is the future grace of the omnipotent Christ, who will always
be there for us --- ready to will and ready to work for HIS good pleasure.