When the Container Comes Off
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”Philippians 2:12–13 (KJV)
Hard challenges are popular: seventy-five days of strict rules, no excuses. Many people finish them strong. Then, a few weeks later, the old habits creep back. The discipline lived in the container, not in the person. Take away the structure, and it leaves with it.
Paul wrote to believers who had done well while he was with them. Now he wanted it to last without him: “as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
That is the difference. A program works on you from the outside. God works in you, changing what you want as well as what you do. That kind of change doesn’t disappear when the challenge ends.
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Use structure, but ask God to change the heart underneath it.
Read it yourself
Read Philippians 2:12–16. What does Paul want believers to shine as in the world?
Which of your good habits would survive if every outside structure disappeared tomorrow?
Lord, work in me to will and to do. Change my heart, not only my habits. Amen.