JUST LIKE YOU LIKE IT
I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Jesus returns. (Philippians 1:6 NLT)
Often time’s people will purchase and home that to one person’s eye looks just fine, but the new owners will remodel it to their taste. They put the money in and they expect it to be finished just the way they like it. We all like it when things are just the way we want them.
Unfortunately, this mind set is often transferred over into our spiritual lives as well. We want God, but we want things with God the way we want them. Depending on our relationship with God this attitude can be very blatant or securely kept under the surface, but no matter what, God knows, and this attitude slows or even stops the work He is able to do in us.
The fact is that God is able to complete the good work that He has begun at any time that He is given the go ahead. Unlike a construction project that stops if there are no resources, God is never short on the ability or the provision. The only resource that can stop His work is our lack of desire for Him to continue.
I was talking with God and found myself asking Him to come and remodel me in any way that He desired and as I did I saw this illustration of rebuilding and restoring. God’s plan has always been to restore us to fellowship with Himself and to rebuild us according to the original design at the beginning of creation. Our desire is what fuels and finances the project.
Just as a lack of funds can put a project on idle, so can our lack of desire for God put a hold on our transformation into the image of His dear son. He will not force anything. He is patient. He is always ready at any moment to move ahead with the project, but we must leave the design to Him. We of course can have input and being actively involved, but always with a heart that says “Lord I want it just the way you like it! I like your ideas best.”
That means that we will let go of anything that conflicts with what He says. It means that we may have to give up old ways and thoughts of how we think God is as our minds are renewed. We can never stop advancing deeper into the fullness of our salvation and the Kingdom of God.
We really need to be careful of getting stuck in ruts of what we prefer or what we are comfortable with and just throw the door open for the goodness of God. His goodness may tear down a wall or two and put in big windows so we can see more clearly.
This and anything else that God does is all good because He is all good. So the best thing for us to do is get over the idea that everything has to be the way we like it and welcome the Lord to do things the way He likes them. When I was first saved, I experienced an extreme make over. I am so glad that I did not just lock up the house at that point and say it was good enough. It was only a beginning. I am certain that God will continue His work as long as I welcome Him to do it. I am just as certain that if I stop welcoming Him, He will stop and my house will begin to deteriorate. Won’t you join me in welcoming God to have it just the way He likes it in our lives.