PHILIPPIANS 2:13

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.”

To Ponder

Did you catch what this verse is actually saying as you read this? God is not just working through you he is working in you. Not only shaping what you do but transforming what you want to do.

That is amazing! Most of us know the frustration of wanting to want the right things but finding that our desires don't always cooperate (Paul writes about this in Roman 7). We want to love more generously, but selfishness creeps in. We want to forgive, but bitterness lingers. We want to be patient, and then someone tests us before breakfast. The will is often the hardest thing to surrender.

And yet Paul tells us that God is at work at precisely that level, not just on our behaviour, but on our desires. He is in the business of rewiring what we reach for, reshaping what we long for, and redirecting our deepest motivations toward his good purpose. The same God who spoke creation into existence is quietly, faithfully working in the interior places of your life that no one else can see.

This means that the fruit God calls us to bear is not ultimately dependent on our willpower finally being strong enough. It is dependent on his work being thorough enough. He who began a good work will carry it through. He who plants the desire also provides the power to act on it.

Our responsibility is not to produce the fruit ourselves. It is to remain open and cooperative with what God is already doing within us. He is at work. The question is whether we are paying attention — and whether we are willing.

The fruit begins from the inside out. And God is already there.

Prayer

Father,

What a relief it is to know that You are not standing at a distance, waiting for me to get my act together. You are already at work — inside me, in the very place where my will and my desires are formed. Thank You for not leaving that work to me alone.

Work deeply in me today. In the places where my desires are still misaligned with yours, redirect them. In the places where I know what is right but lack the strength to act, empower me. Help me to confidently trust that what you have begun in me, You will complete.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today’s Devotion is written by Pr Nich