“HE’S STILL WORKING ON ME”
Philippians 2: 12-13 NIV Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Today matters. Our lives are equal to the sum total of our daily decisions-good and bad. Someone has described the principle this way: “You will be what you are becoming today.” -
There is a kids’ song called, “He’s Still Working On Me.” I think I learned it on a cassette tape of children’s songs when our daughters were little. In part, it goes something like this:
He’s still working on me, to make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week
to make the moon and stars, the sun and the earth, and Jupiter and Mars. How
loving and patient He must be, He’s still working on me."
There is a lot of truth in that little song. God is still at work. He’s at work in you. He’s at work in me. To be honest, that last one is a good thing. I’d hate to think that God is through with me, and what I am today is the pinnacle of my existence. No, there’s more to come. Just as honestly, I hope you think the same way. The problem is that we’ve got to learn how to cooperate with God. We are involved in this thing called “life”. We’re not a robot or a “Pinocchio”. Whatever God accomplishes in us must necessarily come with us “onboard”.
Some people make the mistake of thinking that there is no need for them to cooperate. That is just a strange attitude to have. It would be like getting into your car to drive to the store, and the car had the mind to do its own thing instead of cooperate with you. You steer right and it goes straight ahead. It would be a mighty frustrating trip trying to get anywhere.
Other people make the mistake of thinking that God can’t, or won’t, work in them at all. He’s somehow too far removed from us to be personally or intimately involved in our lives. These folks think they’re just on their own. Like their car will just up and drive to the store without them. Maybe happens in the movies, but not in real life. Still others think they’ve got to understand how God works before He works. This is like a guy with a perfectly good car in the driveway, but who thinks he’s got to figure out all the mechanics before it will run.
There are all sorts of ideas that do us little good simply because we don’t take God at His Word. The Bible says that God is at work in us! We obey His Word and His will because that’s how we participate in the process of change and growth. But in the end, it’s God’s work in us that amazes us with success.
So, yes, today matters. You enter the day as the person you are, a result of all the days that have preceded it. God will be at work today, just as He has been in all the other days. He would very much like for you to participate with Him, to get “onboard” with His plan for your life. Obeying God’s will puts into practice those things God is trying to do in you.
It is truly an amazing process. You might be quite surprised at what God ends up doing with your life! You just never know! But you can count on this: whatever it is, it will continue to shape you into what He wants you to be. That will work forever!
