God – The Author and Perfector of Our Faith

Philippians 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.”

While each of us are a unique creation of God and have different paths to follow and different crosses to bear, we do all go through similar stages of growth that are common to all who have trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior.

For instance, God wants to teach all who know Him certain basic principles as a foundation on which to build:

· God wants us to realize that apart from Him….we can do nothing! John 15:5 He wants us to abide and remain in Him, so we do not go our own way, which will eventually lead to spiritual and possibly even physical pain. God will allow us all to fail at times, in order to bring us to the place, where we realize we can achieve nothing of value without His divine guidance and power.

· God will allow our pride to cause us to fall, as it is a threat to our spiritual growth. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.” Proverbs 16:18 We may often accomplish something, and give God the credit, when in our heart we are prideful of what we feel we have accomplished. God knows the deepest feeling of our heart, and all He really cares about, is changing and conforming our hearts to His. If we begin to think in our heart that we have accomplished something great without Him, then we chance being deceived and eventually following our own heart and dreams, instead of His. “This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless”. Jeremiah 13:10

· God does not allow any of His children to worship other things ahead of Him for too long. He has been very clear in His Word on how He feels about us placing other things before Him. “Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19:4 He will be faithful to eventually bring all of His children face to face with whatever holds them captive, as He is a Jealous God. Exodus 20:5

· God wants us all to live sold-out for Christ, instead of ourselves each day. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”. Galatians 2:20 He wants us to become a living sacrifice who is not tossed about in their faith by every whim and circumstance that comes our way. “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Romans 12:1

· And finally, God allows and wants us all to serve Him. We were created to do good works, and this becomes evident as growing Christians use their talents to glorify Jesus. “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

We will never feel totally fulfilled and complete in Christ, unless we are serving Him in some capacity, as we were all created to do His good works.

Lord, please draw us into a more intimate relationship with you today. Thank You for being so faithful and finishing the work that You began in each of us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen