God Works in You

"For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." Philippians 2:13 (NIV)

Do you remember learning how to ride a bicycle? My older brother had a small red bike that he rode and one day my dad decided I was ready to accept the challenge of riding that bike. We lived on an acre of property in the country that had a downhill slope, so the first thing my dad did was to have me coast on the bike down the hill on our property. Once I'd mastered the art of keeping my balance by coasting, my dad took me out to the gravel road in front of our house and ran along with me as I attempted to both balance the bike and pedal at the same time. Again there was a slight slope to the road, so eventually as I pedaled slightly downhill it became easier and easier to both pedal and maintain my balance.

Maintaining your balance is as crucial in your Christian life as it is in riding a bike. Lean too far one way or the other and soon you find yourself laying in the gravel with all kinds of scrapes and cuts (I speak from personal experience in both areas!).

Paul wanted to make sure the new Christians in Philippi maintained a sense of balance in their lives. In Philippians 2:12 Paul encourages them to continue to obey. But notice this encouragement to obey comes after Paul has talked about the obedience of Christ in verse 8. Our obedience is never designed to earn God's favor, but is always in response to God's favor.

Then comes a phrase, that taken out of context, has tripped up many a person. Notice: "Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling..." Now taken alone, this makes it appear that our salvation is up to us, and unless we clench our fists and grit our teeth and work really hard we'll be in danger of not being saved.

But notice verse 13 which is a continuation of this phrase. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." Did you catch that? God does two very important things for us according to this verse.

First, He gives us the will, or the desire, to obey. Now be honest: Haven't you faced a situation where you really wanted to do something you knew wasn't what God wanted you to do? Paul says God has the ability to help us want to obey.

Second, He gives us the power to obey. Again, how many times have you been in a scenario where you knew what was right, but you also knew you didn't humanly have the power to what was right?

That's the incredible thing about the gospel of grace: God calls us to obey (in response to what He has first done), He gives us the desire to obey, then He gives us the power to obey. All we have to do is cooperate by tapping into the desire and power He gives us.

Grace is absolutely amazing, isn't it? God not only works for us, but God works in us!

Keep your balance this week, OK?