One Step Ahead

 
“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”

Philippians 1:6


I kept telling myself, “three steps forward, two steps back is still one step ahead!” If life is hard today, friend, remind yourself of that. Ask any contractor and they will more than likely tell you it’s much easier building from the ground up than it is to attempt to remodel something that already exists, especially if what exists is older. The Bible on the other hand teaches us that what is impossible with man is possible with God. Nothing is too difficult for God. He majors you might say in rebuilding us, taking broken people and making us like new. The Bible calls this process sanctification.

As I am watching one of my good friends and his wife tackle their new home renovation I am reminded of when my wife and I remodeled our kitchen and it turned into a home renovation project as inside every project we started lay another project that needed attention before we could move ahead to the next. I could say the process was frustrating but in many ways it wasn’t because I expected there to be set backs and delays. By force you could say we learned to be patient, like it or not.

Life has many lessons to teach us about faith and as I think back to our home remodeling project I am more aware of the sanctifying work of God’s Spirit in each of our lives. What seems like three steps forward and then two steps back is simply part of the process of God’s remodeling of our lives as He changes us from glory to glory. You might feel like your walk with God is three steps forward and two steps back. I know mine often does. My hope today is to remind you as I remind myself, we are still one step ahead, amen!  

What our home remodel taught my wife and I is that God works for us, but He doesn’t work for us! God isn’t working in our lives to make everything easier. God works in our lives to make it possible that we can come to Him. Our remodel project has taught us how things that seem to be mistakes and set backs from our perspective were actually serving a far greater purpose. Most everything that started off wrong, God by His grace turned for our good in the end. I felt many days like Thomas Edison on the night his entire warehouse burned to the ground along with all his incomplete inventions. He said, “tomorrow we can begin again more intelligently.”

Jesus was a carpenter when He walked the earth and He still remains the master craftsman of our soul. Whatever needs rebuilding in our lives Jesus is more than capable of doing. Don’t let life’s setbacks get you down friend. Know that, “all things work together for good to them that love God and who are called according to His purpose.” You might feel like you are taking three steps forward and two steps back. Just don’t forget you are still one step ahead!

 
“For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.”

Proverbs 24:16

I LOVE YOU!