For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13
When most people think about religion and faith, they think of “doing things for God.” The teaching of the Bible in the New Testament is that we let “God work in and thru us” for His glory. On on our own, virtually everything we do seems to have some self-interest and ungodly aspect to it. When we fully surrender to Jesus Christ in faith and receive the Holy Spirit in us, we can now actually “let” God do things in us and thru us that are of Him and not of our flesh/pride/self. Yes, we must choose to walk by faith and surrender to His will as this is a relationship thing, but the actual power and leading in whatever is being done should be of God’s Spirit. This whole concept I am sharing is one I could never comprehend before I trusted in Jesus Christ in 1985. The whole idea of “surrender to Christ” was completely hidden to me and just too abstract for me to imagine. However, once I came to the end of myself and finally gave up control of my life to Jesus, a remarkable thing happened; the idea of trusting God in my day to day life and letting Him guide me by His Word and Spirit suddenly became real and essential to me. It was literally and overnight experience that cannot be explained to someone who has never come to faith in Jesus Christ. It was not religion I found, I already had some of that, it was a relationship with God thru Jesus that is completely spiritual and by faith and thus unseen. My heart had been changed and now God was working on my corrupted mind to change that also. When I stepped out in faith, it was as if God Himself was not only leading me, but also empowering me to do things. I had never had that experience before and I literally thought I was going insane for awhile because I had no one to help me understand this process and walk me thru it. If we are truly followers of Christ, God should be working in each one of us as the scripture above reveals. He is in us not to fulfill our desires, but His will for His pleasure. God loves people and He is all about truth, so if we are following Him and He is working in us, the result should be honesty and love for Him and others. Is this true in your life? Is God having His way in your day to day activities and is He using you to reveal truth and love to others? Are we aware that something is happening in and thru us that is beyond us and even supernatural in substance? It should be if the Holy Spirit is in us and working thru us. If you find this lacking in your life, be sure to get alone with the Lord and talk to Him and ask Him to reveal to you what is needed for change to occur. God is more than willing to meet us in our need, we must just be humble and hungry enough to ask and listen. Blessings to you!
Love in Christ,
Pastor Gary Houdek