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, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life.
Tonight I was very blessed by a good friend of mine who told me a lot of struggles she went through in her life. So often we (or at least, I know I do this) throw around that word "struggle" to show the smallest of hardships... "I struggle in math" for example. But her struggles deserve a stronger word than that of which we use so flippantly. But as we sat on the other side in this coffee shop, talking about her past "struggles", and her testimony in general of where she was and how God brought her to Him... was so inspiring, and blessed me so much. It automatically made me think specifically of Phillipians 2: 12.
Mom had always told me that verse growing up, when I got scared or worried. At first as a child, I would use that verse for something like being afraid of the dark. But God really spoke through Paul in that verse for any kind of "struggle". I have had a lot of fears, and definitely have had my share of trembling. But to think that God wants to empower my faith and my closeness to Him through these things- than every bit of pain is worth it.
Paul seems to understand that in this life, there are a lot of "struggles" and with that a lot of different kinds. It is so easy to complain and may only seem to make sense to grumble about certain things at times, but Paul uses the word "everything" stating "do EVERYTHING without complaining or grumbling". Seem a little vague? It's quite the opposite- he is being extremely specific by using the word 'everything' because he means EVERYTHING!
Then Paul states our purpose, to become "children of God . . . in a warped and crooked generation." In EVERYTHING (there's that word again!) we do, we are representing Christ. If we do things like complain or grumble (especially with people around) are we properly representing the Lord to these people? We are to "shine like stars" to them...
and this doesn't mean be flashy... it means we are light to people who need love, guidance, hope... to people who need Christ.
Dear Lord,
Thank You so much for these passages and for my great conversation with my friend tonight. It was so good to just talk about how to she came to You. Thank You for being this scripture to mind as she told me her story over coffee. Thank You for Paul who wrote this scripture and for breathing Your words into his mind so that we may be guided in how to live our lives for You Lord. Thank You for bringing us through our hardest times, only to be brought to You. We love and praise You always Lord! In Your name we pray Amen.
♥ Chrissy
No comments:
Post a Comment