God At Work!

For it is [not your strength, but it is] God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure. PHILIPPIANS 2:13 AMP

Let me repeat this verse in another version:  That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure. Philippians 2:13 MSG

Please know and acknowledge this: it has never been about you. I consider the value of my gifts, talents, qualifications and valuables, then remember that God decided to put all these treasures in a vessel of clay, breakable, soft and moldable. There is a reason for this, and today's extract simplifies it by saying that the energy I have is God's energy. It is God who is effectively at work, using my life as a pulpit to reach the world.

I also remember a conversation with the Jews of Jesus' time, when they wanted the crowd to stop shouting 'Hosanna'. His response again confirms the above: "If you tell these ones to keep quiet, the stones will cry out". Whether literally or figuratively, with God, there is no room for pride or self sufficiency.

God is always at work. You can't initiate an assignment on your own, because you have no idea how to start. God calls me to join in at his work, and he determines my point of entry, the necessary provision for the VISION he has given, and my point of exit and influence over his assignments. At no time can I seek to please myself. I know we claim we are free, but that freedom is actually a life commitment to God and his work. 

You don't get to pick and choose; you simply move at his command. After all, if God's pleasure is my desire, then nothing will be too big or too little for me to do. He will provide the desire and willingness, and also provide the sustaining grace to see the work to the end. Have I surrendered my life to the One who really owns it in the first place? His time of favour is here.