Philippians 1:6
Good morning! It’s been a week since we last had breakfast together. Within the past week the landscape of my family has enlarged. We gained a lovely daughter-in-law, Brittany, and her family, for which we are very grateful.

During the past week I’ve been focusing on Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. This epistle is undoubtedly one of the apostle’s happiest letters! It is somewhat reminiscent of MLK’s famous Letter from Birmingham Jail in that Paul wrote this powerful treatise while incarcerated. Therein the similarity ceases, however.

One of the recurrent themes is “trusting in God” and “trusting Christ.” See Philippians 3:9. The primary reason why Paul admonishes the believers that God can be trusted is because of He is the origin and the Finisher of their redemption. Listen to authorial presence of God as the words of life issue from Paul’s pen: “There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” Philippians 1:6. These are words of life that dispels the quicksand of legalistic self-righteousness and the opaqueness of discouragement!

This is one reason why Satan not only seeks to distract, deceive, and destroy us by sin because he is fully aware that our redemption and triumph is God’s work that takes place within us. God is the initiator and the Finisher; He is the ultimate closer. So Paul wants (all) the people of God – at Philippi, as well as all who will believe in Christ as a result of this message- to understand the centrality of God’s power that is working in us.

Even when we fail by choosing to sin, all is not lost and without hope- as Satan would like us to think. How can that be? Because God has promised that He will finish the good work that He started in you. Consider one of my favorite quotations from Ellen White regarding this matter:  “There are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To such I would say, ‘Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, nor forsaken and rejected of God. No; Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. . . if you will but yield yourself to Him . . . pray more fervently; believe more fully. . . As we come to distrust our own power, let us trust the power of our Redeemer, and we shall praise Him who is the health of our countenance.” Steps to Christ, p.64.

Now is not the time to wallow in discouragement, but to follow the advice of the man of God, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James 4:8. He will finish His good work in you.

Because of Him
Pastor Gary