God, as He frequently does, takes me back to the Old Testament when He is making a point about or answering something in the New Testament. And the last few days as I was once again reflecting on something that Paul wrote to the Philippians, He took me back once again concerning Practicing Godliness.
Phil 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work [to do] for his good pleasure. ESV
God alters our disposition and we are left to work out that new disposition by practicing godliness [the life of Christ that we have been given] day by day, whereby we become who we were created to be; conformed into the image of Christ. Or, another way to view it is expressing in our life the salvation that God has worked in. That is the place for yielding and surrendering to the Holy Spirt. What does my tongue say? What things do I listen to? What type of people do I associate with? They are the expression of my union with Jesus, proving who I am and whose I am.
But we often get that turned around and we focus on working on the inside, where we hinder His work. We put prayer and consecration in place of God’s work; we make ourselves the workers, forgetting that God is the worker, and His focus is our spirituality. We have to do the practical. We have to see that we continually work out with careful concentration that which He has already worked in. And we can only accomplish that if we stand firmly in unshaken faith on the complete and perfect redemption of our Lord.
And that’s when the Holy Spirit took me back to the words of “The Preacher;” Solomon.
Eccl 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ESV
Man teaches that the only reasonable thing to do is to “live a reasonable life.” Jesus teaches us that the only way to live a reasonable life in on the basis of faith in God. He tells us to be carefully careless about everything but our relationship with Him. We are not to be disturbed today by thoughts about tomorrow or yesterday. Yesterday is past, there is no road back to it and tomorrow isn’t here yet. We need to live in the immediate present because that is where we are called to discover how God works in us and how we are to “work out” the character of God that we have been given.
And The Preacher put it in perspective …
Eccl 3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter [purpose] under heaven: ESV
A season is an appointed time and a purpose is a matter; all the major activities in which we engage under the sovereign will of God. There is an appropriate season for us to work out the matters the Holy Spirit reveals to us that reflect the character of our bridegroom to the world around us.
Yes, God has made everything beautiful in its time, and when He gets His time in us, when He gets His work in us, things will be beautiful again … the way He created them.