God's Progressive Work in You (Episode 135)

No matter how long you live as a Christian, plenty room will always exist in your life to become more like Christ. The good news is that God is still working in your life toward that end. This episode addresses God’s progressive work in our life.

The basis of this episode is found in the words of Paul in his letter to the Philippians. There he writes, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6, KJV).

Note that Paul refers to God’s work in us as a “good work.” Furthermore, until the day of Christ, should we live until then, God will be working to perfect His good work in us.

Accordingly, we must be careful and not judge a person based upon some current snapshot we see of the person. Every genuine believer in Christ is a good work in progress. How we see someone today is no indication of who he will be tomorrow. That this is true attests to God’s progressive work in us. He wants to make and mold each of us into the image of His Son.

It is important to note that this episode is not about salvation. Salvation is an instant and complete work of God in our life. If someone were to genuinely accept Christ as his or her Savior today and die tonight, that person will go to be with the Lord. This episode, however, addresses our spiritual growth, which is not instant but ongoing.

Cooperating with the Process

We can impede God’s progressive work in our life. We should instead cooperate with what God is doing in us. He does not force change upon our life. This is the reason some Christians grow more quickly than others do.

Imagine that you are on the interstate, and you find out that some road work is going on. The exit you need to take is closed temporarily. So, you must go down a couple more exits and then take some back roads to get to where you are going. Going that way still gets you to your destination; it’s just a longer route because of the roadblock.

That’s the situation with God’s efforts to further His work in some Christians’ lives. They build personal detours and roadblocks to what God wants to accomplish in their life. So, He has to work through those issues with them. He can still get them where He wants to take them. But it takes longer when we don’t cooperate with His ongoing good work in us.