Philippians 1:1-11

Finish What You Start

I’m writing a book. Actually, I’m writing several books. Actually, I’ve thought about writing several books and have even gone so far as to set up a folder in Dropbox called “Books”. In that folder are four separate folders. Each of those four contains a book title and perhaps a bit of an outline. One of them contains a completed chapter! I am writing several books but don’t hold your breath. 

Additionally, I am almost a hundred pages into War and Peace. I am going to turn our yard into an English Garden. I am going to clean up my office (both at home and at church). And some day I am going to wash the car. We haven’t even touched the Bucket List yet.

I suspect that anyone reading this could write paragraphs eerily similar to the two I just finished. (See, I do finish some things!) The truth is that we all start things with good intentions, and while the good intentions remain so does the project. There are things we just never seem to finish. This too is evidence that we are not God.

The passage today is short but it contains one of the most powerful and wonderful promises in all of the Bible. “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.” Wow! I’ll just make three quick points and then you can think about them.

• God is the One working to change us. We may think that we are doing something but in reality we cannot change ourselves. We can make some cosmetic changes but we are still fallen people. 
• The work that He is doing will result in us being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. (Try doing that yourself!)
• He will do it. It will happen, because God finishes everything He starts. He is not like us.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think my garage needs cleaning out.