Effective

Do you ever feel stuck in a rut? Like you aren’t really going anywhere? I remember a time many years ago when I drove my car into my driveway and high centered myself on a snow drift. No matter how much I accelerated and no matter what else I did, I just couldn’t get the car back on solid ground where I could get traction. And sometimes in life, I feel that way too. Like all I do is spin my wheels but go nowhere. And that’s a really depressing feeling, especially for a performance-driven control freak like myself.

But on those days where I feel like I don’t make any progress or like what progress I’ve made isn’t useful,  I need to remember that living is a process. And that as long as I’m alive, I will grow closer to God every day. When I accepted Christ, I was forgiven, but it didn’t make me perfect. Perfection won’t get here until Christ comes back for us, but until then we live and we learn and get to know God through Christ.

Sunflowers at South Haven Farm – Haven, KS

Today’s verse is Philippians 2: 13.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

This encourages me because it reminds me that God didn’t just forgive me and leave me behind. No, He’s actively involved in my life. He’s working in me, helping me learn, interceding for me in prayer, showing me truth about Himself that I wouldn’t know without Him. But this verse takes the whole concept of being a Christian to the next level. It’s not only talking about how God works in us, but it also reveals that God is the one who energizes us.

This is the same verse in the Amplified Version.

[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

I think that’s pretty cool. I love the Amplified Version because you can really get down and see what the words mean. I mean, check out the word effectually. You can say God is at work in you over and over again, but simply putting that word effectually in there changes everything. Because even on a day when you just feel like you’re spinning your wheels, this verse means that God is still working and that He’s is still effective in His work, even when you feel like you aren’t.

And on those days when you feel too tired to do anything else, God is the one who gives you strength. Have you ever experienced that? I have. At the times when you need strength and endurance and energy, you have it when there’s every reason for you to collapse. I’ve been on mission’s trips when I should have been exhausted, but I wasn’t. My church does a massive outreach every October that requires us to be on our feet for 12 hours at a time after a full day of work. And maybe that doesn’t sound like a lot to you, but I’m a low-energy kind of person. I have a hyperactive brain, but that’s about it. But during those last two weeks in October, God does something miraculous in peoples’ lives. And in those moments where I feel exhausted, He gives me new strength and excitement.

So on this hump day in September 2012, if you follow Christ, remember that God is an active part of your life (or at least, He wants to be). He wants to work in your heart. He wants to work in you and help you get through a day. You should let Him. Because if you do, you can know that the things that He accomplishes through you will last. Maybe you won’t accomplish what you think you need to accomplish, but if you let God do what He wants, you’ll be effective either way.