Lent Day 1
Day 1
Today we begin our Lenten series on favorite lines from hymns. This is not a devotion on favorite hymns, but on favorite lines from hymns. And these are all submissions from congrwegation members. They are not my favorites. And we are starting in a wonderful spot. A very appropriate spot for the beginning of Lent. We start with the hymn
“He Who Began A Good Work in You” TFWS 2163
And the favorite line is:
He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it
This member writes: This is from one of my favorite scriptures found in Philippians 1:6.
“6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
It’s a reminder to me that from the moment that I invited God to enter my life and asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit, God will continue to work in me until the day of Christ’s return. God’s work is in progress through the lifelong process of sanctification and He will be faithful to complete it in me.
I love that response. But the question we must ask is what is that good work that was begun? Well, let’s skip ahead just a bit and read a couple of verses.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”
There you have it. The work begun is this work of being transformed into the righteousness of God. To grow in love and that this love may abound in us. That we grow closer to God and purify our hearts. But this passage also reminds us that we are to be continually growing. That growth and change never stop. At least not until we are completed in love. And I don’t know about you, but I have a way to go to be completed in love. But I know that if I trust God, that Jesus Christ will complete that work. Not me, but Jesus. We have no ability to complete that work that Jesus started. We can’t pray enough or attend worship enough. Not that we shouldn’t strive to do those things. But rather its an admission that without Jesus no matter how hard we work we cannot be completed in love. On our own we will never complete the work done in Christ. S0 rest in that promise that Jesus is still working in you and will be until the very end. Maybe that is more of a threat than a promise. But either way, Jesus isn’t done with anything of us. Hallelujah.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Lee