God Himself Works in Us

“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, of His good pleasure.” 

Phil. 2:13

What a blessed reality!  God dwells in these mortal jars of clay – He alone is ALWAYS our hope of righteousness, from beginning to end.

We have a wonderful dog.  His name is Stover.  From the day he came to live in our house we noticed he came packaged with a temperament that loves to please.  So when we took him to obedience school, he would learn the commands.

One of the commands he learned is “Leave it!”  It means when you do not want him to touch something (like food on the ground), he will obey!  He “wows” our friends when we put a dog treat on the floor, then, tell him to wait until we say he can have it.  Yes, it’s true.  Of course, saliva is dripping down from his mouth as he waits.  Oh, the temptations of a dog!

When we walk him, if we spot something he shouldn’t pick up with his mouth, we’ll say “Stover, leave it!”  And he does.  But there’s been a few occasions, when we did not see something and he went and did it – picked it up his mouth.  Then, gulp, down it went.

There was however, this one time when he picked up something in his mouth and we caught him!  While he still had it in his mouth, we said the command, “Leave it!”  Well what’s a dog to do?  It’s already in his mouth.  Pressure was mounting.  He could either swallow that thing and disobey, or how about just hold it in his mouth and sort of “do” semi-obedience?

This is what he did.  The “Leave it” command wasn’t working.  We figured unless we did something, “that thang” was going to hang in his mouth for a very long time.  Gary reached over and had to literally pry his mouth open, continuing with the command, “Leave it, Stover!” 

Inch by inch, the dog let go.  He never did chew, nor did he swallow it.  But yes, let it go down on the record – we had to pry his mouth open.  Don’t know whether or not he really gets a “checkmark” as having obeyed, but we certainly laughed at the scenario.

In something so simple as our experience with Stover, we look back on our lives and know that God’s Spirit within does the same exact thing!  We’ve all been entangled with many things:  the world’s thinking, problems in the flesh, need for renewal of the mind, etc.

We certainly came packaged, after our being born of the Spirit, with a heart to please, to know the Lord – it’s all part of WHO He is.  But we certainly also, must learn Christ in us, our hope of glory.

And the Spirit of God is working in us to pry us lose from the world, from religion, from our own opinions, from entanglements of bondage and sin – ALL that we might know the glorious Son of God and the GREAT SALVATION God alone has provided through His Son.

The mystery of the Gospel is indeed Christ living in us and the wonders of God’s grace as His Spirit works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Salvation is truly of God, not of ourselves.  God is forming Christ in us truly and authentically.

Trusting Christ,

Sue Gaither