God works in me…

When I read a verse like, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge” (2 Peter 1:5) I have to remember passages like this one:

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 for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)

If I don’t, then all efforts to add virtue to faith, etc. might be without and fruitless. Jesus is the example. He spoke often of doing the works God sent Him to do. He also said, “Not my will but thine be done” as He prayed.

One author says we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, God does that; but God will not give us good habits.

I disagree. Apart from Him working in me to “will and to work for His good pleasure” I know that I would not want to add to my faith or doing anything other than what I felt like doing. It is this battle against self and my selfishness that He won for me at the cross and works continually in my life that I will be transformed into His likeness.

At the same time, when He speaks, I must obey, yet not I but motivated by the Spirit that lives in me. Another writer says: “My only resource is to cast myself upon Jesus in the most ignorant sort of way, defining nothing, and almost as it were believing nothing, but simply trusting Him to accomplish the whole work from beginning to end in His own way and time.”

She tells of a woman who thought she had to speak English in her prayers, but only knew two words, so she prayed those two words. These words were meaningless but God heard her heart and answered her prayers.

Others who pray seem to value thee’s and thou’s as if King James had the secret of prayer. Still others pressure God with “but You promised” and claim the right to have whatever they ask for.

These weeks, God is showing me that the secret of prayer is not any sort of manipulation or ‘trick’ or formula. It is helplessness. When I feel like the woman who knew no English, God hears my heart. When I feel physically faint or spiritually bankrupt, I am learning to rest in Him. As a third writer says, when I am feeling unable, His message is not, “Be strong and of good courage” because my strength and courage has abandoned me. Instead, He says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

This is what God asks of me — never “Try harder” but always “Trust Me” and “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14)

PRAY: Jesus, in waiting for You yesterday, three phone calls became answers to the cries of my heart. I was trying to verbalize one of those cries, but the other two were also ‘heard’ and answered, needed but not expressed. You hear me, even when I don’t speak. You work in me even when I feel useless. May I be as faithful to hear You, not so I can jump into action but so You can direct me to act or think whatever You desire from me. I want to be motivated by You, not my I wants, or what is happening around me. Guide even my heart as well as my prayers. Oh, God, what a wonder You are!