He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. –Philippians 1:6
When I was 5 years old, my parents bought their first house. One day they announced we were going to see our new home. We all jumped in the car and drove over to see where we would be living.
I hated it.
The house had no windows or doors, just openings in the walls. It had a funny smell. You could see the basement through big holes in the floorboards–and there was only a ladder to get downstairs! Outside the house were all kinds of debris and wood. And the ground was just bumpy clay and dirt.
That night I told my mom I didn’t want to live in the house with holes in the floor. Why would anyone want to leave the nice place where we were living to go live in something like that? I couldn’t understand why they would want to either.
But what I had seen through my young eyes was not the complete picture. Eventually, the house did get windows – and doors. The “funny smell” of new lumber faded. And the holes in the floor were covered. A staircase was added. The walls were painted. Mom put up curtains. And pictures on the walls. And plants in the living room. The leftover lumber disappeared. Dad put in a lawn, then some bushes and trees, and finally some flowers. It was now a home. And it was beautiful.
Without the “finishing” touches, no one would have wanted to live in that house. It was incomplete. As Christians, we need “finishing” too. But that’s not work that we can do on our own. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. The groundwork was laid at our conversion, and the Holy Spirit is continuing the sanctifying process. Our part of this job is to follow Jesus Christ, who is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). One day, our transformation will be complete.
The saying goes: “Please be patient. God isn’t finished with me yet!” The process is absolutely necessary to produce the final product. Without being “roughed in,” there can be no “finishing.”
You may sometimes feel that construction has stopped. There hasn’t been any progress in quite a while. Don’t give up. Continue your fellowship with the Lord. One day there will be some fine, finished masterpieces, ones that were designed and are now complete. That will be you . . . and me! –CK
REFLECTION
• Am I in the “roughing in” process right now? How long have I been there?
• As I look back over the last few months, can I see anything that’s different in my spiritual life? What has changed?
God will complete the work He began in you.