our confidence...

In the Book of Philippians, the Bible tells us, "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

Once a person puts their trust in Jesus, this has got to be one of the most important verses in all of Scripture. It tells us now that we have trusted in Jesus, God will never give up on us!

Paul is telling us here that he wants us to be confident in the fact, that once we place our trust in Jesus He is not going to cast us aside if we trip up. He is going to complete the work that He began in our lives the moment He saved us. God has not forgotten about us. 

Paul uses this same terminology throughout his writings. In 2 Timothy 1:12, Paul tells Timothy that he has been "persuaded that He (Jesus) is able to keep" what Paul entrusted to Him in faith, that is his soul. This word for "persuaded" is the same Greek word used for confident in Philippians 1:6. In Romans 8:38, Paul says, "For I am PERSUADED (confident) that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Here, Paul is saying that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in all of creation, that can ever separate you from the Love of God that is found in Christ Jesus. 

Do you know what this means? It means that if you have faith in Jesus, this promise belongs to you. It means that when you belong to God, He will make sure that He sees His work in you through to the end.

Back in Philippians 1:6 when Paul says he is confident that God will "complete the good work" in and through our lives, the Greek word that is used by Paul in this verse is epiteleo, which means that God “will complete thoroughly” the work He began in us. The verb “complete” is a verb that is in the “future indicative” tense, which describes an action that will occur in the future. It is not a possible event that will be completed in the future, but a definite reality for us.

So when Paul says God will complete the work He began in us, it is already a done deal! We just have to walk in it. It is like when the Israelites were given the promise land. It was already theirs, until ten of the knucklehead spies ruined it for them. The land of promise was already theirs, they just had to walk in it.

And that is what we are doing right now. We are walking in confidence of the fact that it is God completing His work in and through our lives.

If you look at the relationship between my son Jeremiah and me, and if I am a type of the Lord in his life. I can tell you one thing. I am going to be faithful to complete the work in his life. To teach him about the Lord and God’s love. I am not going to let him grow up illiterate or treat his mother with disrespect, or treat others poorly. He is going to learn how to be a person who learns what it means to love the Lord, and who loves people, and who has a servant's heart.

He is going to get all the tools and all the training and all the love and investment he needs, so that when he gets out in the world, he will be well-equipped to face whatever comes his way.

In fact, when we talk about God’s plan for equipping our children, Deuteronomy 6:7-9 tells us, “You shall teach them (the Word of God) diligently  to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

So we read here that we are commanded to teach our children diligently and write God’s Word on our walls, and place scripture magnets on our refrigerator's. Back then they had refrigerators and they would place Scripture on their fridge. They were also commanded to place scripture on their fences and as they were walking by the verses they were to stop and talk about the Word of God to their children.

Lyndsey and I have several verses on the walls throughout our home. There is Psalm 23 in our living room, and every day both of us will take Jeremiah to that poster and recite it to him, and talk to him about it. We have Lamentations 3:20-22 upstairs, and Matthew 11:28 in our home office, Jeremiah 32:17 in his bedroom, Proverbs 3:5-6 in another room. Our entire house is filled with the Word of God and we daily read the scriptures to him as we pass by them.

The reason for bringing this up is to tell you that Jeremiah doesn’t stand a chance of not being prepared when he has to one day face the difficulties that life will try to challenge him with.

Back to Deuteronomy 6:7, when the bible says parents, train your children “diligently”, that word diligent is a very important word, and speaks volumes to us of the importance of training our kids up.

This same word is used in other places in the bible to describe a soldier sharpening their swords before going into battle. We are called as parents to sharpen our kids as weapons for the battle that they are going to face when they get out into the world. They are to be a weapon of love, and kindness, and righteousness. A good-weapon for Jesus Christ.

There is absolutely no way that Jeremiah is not going to get this from us in life. It’s already a done deal. It is completed! It’s already finished even though there is still work for us to do in his life! 

We have been persuaded that this is the only way to raise him. I am sure that this is every parents desire. We all want the best for our children. And guys, if this is true for us, how much more does God want this for us as His children? 

And that is my point here. If we are so committed to making sure we compete the work in our children so that they can best face this world, and live their life as fruitfully as possible for Jesus, how much more does God want that for us?

This should encourage all of us that when God says, “I will COMPLETE the good work I began in you”, He means it! 

This is our confidence!