I came to realize there are things in my life that are cyclical - like the seasons - always coming around again and again - and there are things in my life that are a work in progress (WIP). I, as a task oriented person, have a huge tendency to focus on the cyclical things - or my to do list - and forget about the things that are wip's.
Through Phil 1:6 :
- being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (NIV)
- 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. (THE MESSAGE)
- And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again. (NLT)
I came to realize that thank goodness God does not have a daily to do list with our names on it with the expectation that once he works on us he is done - where he crosses us off and goes on to the next day's list with new names.
Of course there are things in my relationship with Jesus that are cyclical - those nasty sin patterns that rear their ugly heads - and then there are things that are wip's like my marriage, my family, parenting and becoming a godly women. These are areas that God is growing me each and every day - slowly and he will not be finished with me until the day Jesus comes back or the day I met him in heaven.
So this isn't about what I do each day - it is about all those things that will take place between now and heaven!
I need to have a kingdom perspective instead of a to do list perspective - not what can I cross off today? - more like how can I grow today?
3 comments:
i can't tell you how many times this weekend while cleaning house i thanked God that He never crosses me off His list of things to work on...
if He can have the extraordinary amoung of patience it takes to deal with me on an on-going basis, then I can have the patience to deal with the repeating tasks....
Amen to both of those posts! It is so easy to be task oriented and feel a sense of accomplishment, but how do we make God feel? We are WIP everyday. We back slide or try to slide things under the carpet knowing the worldly world will not even notice, but those friends that we are blessed with that try to be different see us in the true light and help us to continue the work we have to do. I am blessed with those type of friends and want more people to experience that. Jill
I love the Message translation..."There never has been the slightest doubt...
This really helped me today!
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