God’s Working People
Salvation’s Work – Part V

Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:12-18

Key Verse: Philippians 2:12
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,

Yesterday’s devotional laid out the two-step process of being holy like Jesus. God does the work in our inner life, and we work on our outer life.

The good news is that we do not have to do the work with our own strength or wisdom because the Holy Spirit lives within us to help us! The Apostle Paul said it this way:

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for He who calls you is faithful. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

Not that in this verse, holiness is to reach every part of our being: “make you holy in every way”. Do not be satisfied with a partial holiness, believing that God is okay with one or two areas of our lives that do not look like Jesus.

Slowly but surely, God opens every secret door of our inner lives and reveals what we need to cleanse. We can, and sometimes do, fight to keep some of those doors closed because some are hard to do away with. Out of His great love, God never stops His work at getting us to the place where we have opened and cleaned behind all doors.

We often do not realize it, but as we go through some of the hard times in our lives, God uses these things to discipline to us. Hebrews 12 describes this clearly:

For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in His holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. (Hebrews 12:10-11 NLT)

It seems impossible that God can make us holy in every way! And it would be impossible if God left it to us. He knows that it is only by His power that we can be what He wants us to be! Even when we get stubborn on God and cling to our old ways, He can bring us around to want what He wants more than what we want.

For those who are quick to obey Him, they receive less discipline. For those who are slower, God brings more discipline.

Know that one way or another God is going to carry out the work He started in us!

Father, I want to be one who quickly responds to Your direction and correction in my life. I ask for Your wisdom and insight that I might quickly become the holy person You know I can be. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.