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INSPIRATION FOR LIVING>
GOD IS NOT FINISHED WITH YOU
April 8, 2008
The Lord’s salvation is awesome. Every recipient of this
experience becomes a new creation. Old things are passed
away, the Bible says (2 Corinthians 5:17). People who once
hated God fall in love with Him. One of the most
fascinating things I witnessed during my years as a pastor
is that through the life-changing gospel of Christ, even
those whom society has given up on can find newness of life
and become champions for God.
I am still amazed at my own relationship with Christ, which
began over 27 years ago. God radically changed my life
instantly. A couple of my colleagues could not
believe that the same person who drank beer with them
during lunch the previous week was now saying he did not
drink anymore. They never saw me go back on that testimony.
On the other hand, none of us has arrived. The Lord
continues to work in our lives. We may not be aware that
this is happening. He integrates this progressive work into
our daily lives, exploiting opportunities to shape us into
the image of His dear Son.
I believe that if Christians would be truthful, most of
them would admit that they are not satisfied with their
current relationship with Christ. Perhaps it’s because they
are struggling morally in one or more areas in their life,
and they can’t seem to get victory. Or maybe they feel
inept to effectively do what they know God has called them
to do in the ministry. Maybe they don’t even know exactly
what it is, but they just know something is missing in
their relationship with the Lord.
Listen to what the Lord inspired Paul the apostle to say
about this: “Being confident of this very thing, that he
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). I want to look
at three key words in this verse:
The first word is confident. We must know without a shadow
of a doubt that God continues to work in our lives. Have
you ever heard a Christian who has a bad temper try to
justify his outbursts of rage? He may say, “I can’t help
it; God made me this way.” But it’s not the will of God for
His children to go about erupting into tantrums. We need to
pray for victory in that area. Such prayer for personal
change must be under girded by a confidence that it is the
will of God to continuously change us into the image of
Christ.
The second word is begun. The good work the Lord has begun
in us is salvation. This experience does not denote
spiritual maturity. The truth is that when we first got
saved we didn’t act much differently than we did before we
met Christ. That’s because we were babes in Christ. Not
knowing what to do, we did what we knew. Through salvation,
however, the Lord has provided us everything we need to
become the great champion He wants us to ultimately become.
The third word is perform. I quoted Paul’s words from the
King James Version of the Bible. The word “perform” from
this verse means to “bring to completion.” You see, God
wants to complete the good work He has begun in us. He will
not be finished with us until the very end of our journey
here. Thanks to the Lord’s salvation in our lives, we are
no longer what we used to be, but because of His
progressive work in our lives, neither are we yet what we
are destined to become!
Paul’s letter to the Philippians is addressed to “all the
saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi” (Philippians
1:1). The word “saints” applies only to those who have been
saved. But it is important to understand that though
salvation is instant, maturity is a lifetime endeavor.
A lot of misconception has been perpetuated by believers
who refuse to be for real. They have promoted this false
idea that when a person becomes born again he almost walks
on water. Some unbelievers who might accept Christ feel
intimidated because they have been given this misconception
that being a Christian denotes perfection. Not that we
necessarily make statements that bluntly, but at times when
someone fails we comment, “I know he says he is a
Christian, but he must not be if he did something like
that.” Well, friend, sometimes Christians do
nonChristianlike things.
Even prominent ministers bear out the truth of what I am
saying. As I write this message, I am reminded of three
ministers who made the news big time last year in bad ways.
I won’t name them. My intent is not to add to their
embarrassment, but to expand on my point. Each of these
ministers had national influence. A couple of them pastored
megachurches. Because of their moral failures, none of them
presently remain in those leadership positions.
Understandably, many Christians who supported these
ministers felt betrayed. They came on TV and stood behind
pulpits telling the people of God how to live a victorious
Christian life, and they themselves were not doing the
same, some argue. Then some of the Christians at the
grassroots felt that if these bigger than life preachers
failed in such a big way, what hope was there for the
little guy?
There is no way to put a positive spin on what those
preachers did, the events were tragic for the body of
Christ, the devil rejoiced over them, and the ministers
involved no doubt endured much pain. But it is also
important for us to remember that though ministers are
saved and called to preach, God is still working on them as
well. Being called to preach the gospel does not denote
perfection.
The Bible says that the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh: “and these are contrary the
one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye
would” (Galatians 5:17). God inspired Paul to write this to
the Christians at Galatia. He is telling us that a war
exists within us. It’s between our born again spirit and
our flesh. The one always goes contrary to the direction of
the other. In this life, we will never be immune to
being tempted in our flesh. God’s will for each of us,
however, is that we learn how to walk in the Spirit that we
not fulfill the desires of our flesh (verse 16). This we
will do if we cooperate with His progressive work in our
lives. By that I mean we must be committed to fully
developing. Some Christians fail to mature because they are
not ready to die to themselves in some areas.
Perhaps as you read this article you are not where you want
to be in Christ. You may even wonder how you will ever
reach spiritual maturity, based on where you currently are,
and where you desire to be. But believe me, friend, the
Lord is not finished with you yet.
He deals with each of us differently for a number of
reasons. You may be struggling in an area that you have
been battling for the past decade, yet you know of new
converts who had the same problem but God just miraculously
took it away from them at salvation. That seems so unfair,
right? Your theology is as good as mine as to why it
happens that way. For example, I know believers who have
been delivered from drugs and alcohol but who can’t seem to
leave cigarettes alone. But to you I say never give up.
Never read into your lack of progress in an area of
spiritual development that God wants you to remain that
way. Rather, for the struggles that make you feel less than
complete, you must pray and seek the face of God, being
confident of this very thing, that He has begun a good work
in you, and He is committed to finishing the same.
Frank King
www.efrankking.com
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