You Can Be Confident in Christ
“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).
I never wanted to be in ministry again. I did not even want people to know I had ever been a pastor.
It was the summer of 2000, and we were moving to a new city in a different state. Our plan was to join a big church where no one would know us. We would gladly serve and help to support the pastoral staff. But I was done; not done with following God but done with ministry.
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.
I did not realize God still had a plan for me to serve Him and His body, the Church. But I knew what was best for me and my family was that I submit to Him in every area of my life.
So, I got my ‘normal’ job and we started to enact our plan to visit 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 even 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!?! We don’t know one another. Who told you? Well, we’re planning to visit your church, so I guess we’ll meet you then.”
That first Sunday, they were doing a musical so there was no preaching, and we were not even sure who the pastors were. But we could tell God was present and active.
Then the Lord set me up. The second Sunday we visited, I was accosted by an 80-year-old woman. Not really accosted, but she was alternating between hugging me and beating on my chest while 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 Pete had moved the year prior and the Lord put me in their church. They wanted me to be the youth pastor.
To make a long story short, I spent 15 years in ministry with them before they sent me out to plant a church. Every step of the way, the Lord was gently leading, healing, and teaching me as I submitted to Him. I can look back and see how God used all these experiences to prepare me for today’s 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.
“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. Brothers and Sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14, NIV).
I can truly affirm Paul’s declaration that God will finish the work He started in you. Even though I was dead set against the idea of ministry, as I followed His leading, He healed my heart, taught me, and showed me how to trust Him again. Therefore, “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6, HCSB).
Dear Saints, as you have an attitude like Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:3-11) and work out your salvation by following God’s initiation (Philippians 2:12-13), you can be certain… absolutely confident… full of conviction… that God will complete that which He started in you.