“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 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 1:3-6)
So much in our world is transient, fragile, and unreliable. From mundane household gadgets to the vehicles we drive, things seem flimsy, almost disposable. This mirrors in some ways the broken promises of our leaders, elected and unelected. To many of us, especially after what we have experienced over the last couple of years, a politician’s promises have become all but worthless. We sometimes wonder if there is anything in the created order that is stable and unchangingly reliable. The reality is, in all the world the only thing that we can be sure of is God’s perfect word. This is so because God’s word is a divinely ordained reflection of His dependable and unchanging character. Just as He is unchangingly perfect, His word is forever settled in the heavens. Knowing this ought to give is patience, comfort, and hope (Romans 15:4). At least there is something we can cling to that won’t let us down, won’t disappoint or devastate us. Our hope is in the God Who discloses Himself in the Bible, and this hope does not disappoint (Romans 5:5). Though He and His perfect word never change, we do. Sometimes we make progress in our thoughts and actions; we conduct ourselves in a fashion that better approximates God’s holy and righteous standards that we did before. Other times, however, we regress, falling short not only of God’s standards, but short of the progress we previously made. Here we find ourselves forced to walk on a razor’s edge. On the one hand we must treat our sin seriously since all sin is directed at God and is a strike against not only His authority, but to His holy and morally perfect character. Sin is serious and we ought to mourn over it. On the other hand, personal sin ought to be confessed and forsaken and not llowed to irrevocably devastate us. Sin in the life of the believer cannot push Him beyond the reach of the Savior’s love (Romans 8:35-39). While so much in our world is transient and fragile, God’s love for us is not. He began a good work in us and He will perform it. By His miraculous transforming power, we will be to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:12). With confidence we may say with David, “The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me” (Psalm 138:8a). Though we have good days and bad days, the promise of Scripture is that somehow, some way, God is moving us all toward perfection, even if that movement is imperceptible to us at times. Let us rejoice together in the promises of our God which are yes and amen in Christ, even as we help one another “press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).
pastor john
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