I Am Confident God Will Finish the Work

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6, NIV). 

It was the summer of 2000, and we were about to move to a new city. Our plan was to join a big church where no one would know us. We would gladly serve and support the pastoral staff, but I was done. I never wanted to be in ministry again, and I didn’t want people to know I had ever been a pastor. 

I told the Lord I wanted a normal job.   

The only work I found was as a psychiatric counselor in a Psychiatric Emergency Department. Dialogue with the Lord became interesting. “Um, Lord, this is, by definition, abnormal. Did I not make myself clear?” And… “Lord, I don’t appreciate your sense of humor.”   

You know it’s not a normal job when part of the training is learning how to restrain someone to medicate them for the safety of everyone on the unit.   

At that time, I didn’t realize God still had a plan for me to serve Him and His Church. But I knew that what was best for me and my family was to submit to Him in every area of my life.   

So, I got my ‘normal’ job, and we started visiting churches. Two weeks after making our initial list, someone told us about another church that had a really good pastor. So, we added it to our list. 

And then the Lord started to really stick His nose in my business. (Let’s have a little fun with this, ok?) I know He was guiding my steps all the way, preparing me for a future I couldn’t see and leading me in His good plan. But I didn’t like it at the time! 

Four days before we visited this church, their associate pastor called me. He heard I had been a youth pastor, and they had been praying for one. “What!?!” I thought. “We don’t know one another. Who told you?”  

The first Sunday we visited, they were doing a musical, so there was no preaching. We weren't even sure who the pastors were. But we could tell God was present and active.  

The second Sunday, I was accosted by an 80-year-old woman. Not really accosted, but she was alternating between hugging me and beating on my chest shouting, “Wait ‘til they find out who you are!” See, Millie and I had been members at the same church 225 miles away! She and her husband, Pete, had moved the year prior and joined the church. Now they wanted me to be the youth pastor.   

To make a long story short, I spent 15 years in ministry at this church before they sent me out to plant a church.  Every step of the way, the Lord gently led me as I submitted to Him. Today, I can look back and see how God used all these experiences to prepare me for my responsibilities with Freedom in Christ. 

My life testifies to God’s promise that He will complete the good work He has started in each of His children. 

I can truly affirm Paul’s declaration that God will finish the work He started in you (Philippians 1:6). Even though I was dead set against the idea of ministry, as I followed His leading, He healed my heart, taught me about Himself, and showed me how to trust Him again.  

Dear Saints, as you submit to God’s leading, you can be certain—absolutely confident—that God will complete that which He started in you. 

As Paul wrote later in Philippians, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12, NIV).