Walking Through Philippians

I am reading through the book of Philippians tonight. I have read through this book times before, but tonight there is just so much that is jumping out at. I love how faithful God is. It always seems that I am in a spot in my life where I am crying out for a good word of comfort or direction and He always takes me to His word and gives it to me. I mean I can have read the passage over and over and over again a hundred times before and then read it when He leads me and it is like I am reading it for the first time thinking "I didn't know this is what it said!" He really is faithful to meet me right where I am at.

One of my favorite verses is in the first chapter of Philippians. 1:6 (NLT) "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." I like it in The Message version as well: "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. "

I like the verse in the NLT because it uses the word "finally." The word finally, to me, represents the fact there was a process involved in the undertaking of some task that had to be completed. To me it gives justice to the fact that most processes involve work that sometimes includes struggle. I know that the work that Jesus has begun in me has been a struggle at times, especially when it involved me changing. Change is not an easy thing for me, especially when I had to learn to redo things in my life after I had been decades doing them the wrong way. I had to learn to trust my destiny and life to someone else that I couldn't see. If that doesn't involve struggle then I am not sure what would.

I like the verse in The Message because it has a more celebratory feel to it. It tells of a "flourishing finish" to the work that Jesus has begun in us. When we have accomplished all that we have been called to accomplish, or we have been found faithfully working to accomplish what we have been called to accomplish when Jesus returns we will be greeted with a "flourishing finish" to our work--a celebration for a life time of work that has been successfully completed. I also like this version because it is more definitive in the words it uses to describe the author's certainty of the fact of Jesus' faithfulness to watch over His work in us. "There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind..." sounds more secure in the knowledge of a fact than simply "I am certain..." To me the first method of explaining certainty is more emphatic than the second.

Beyond the wording of the verse in the two different versions, it is one of my favorite verses simply for what it says. It says that Jesus has made an investment in our lives, and just like any good investor, He is going to diligently watch the investment to make sure it accomplishes what it is supposed to. His investment is going to achieve the purpose He had planned for it. It is exciting to me to think that Jesus believes in me that much and that He cares about my success in His kingdom enough to personally watch over what I have been called to do. When I stumble He doesn't sell all the shares He has invested in me, but rather He redirects them to get me back on track to make me profitable again.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike