A Holy Day Before The Lord

Philippians 1 :6 contains a powerful truth : He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

God will complete what He has started. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega. When God isn’t the beginning, we cannot expect Him to be the end. In Hebrews 12:2 we find the same message:

“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

My margin says ‘the originator and perfecter of our faith’. It’s exactly the same truth again. If He hasn’t originated, He won ’t perfect it. He’s only committed to perfect that which He has originated.

And then the same thought again in Philippians 1:6.

“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.”

My conviction is that if you are really sure God began it, you can be confident He’ll complete it. But if you don’t know for sure that He began it, you never have the confidence that He’ll complete it.

This has become extremely real for Ruth and me in our ministry. Almost every time we pray about our ministry, I end up by saying, “God, we are confident that what you have begun you will complete.” We are more and more cautious not to get involved in anything which God hasn’t initiated. And that has meant many changes in our attitudes and our reactions.

Having this confidence, helps us to relax. Once, Ruth and I took a holiday. The Americans say vacation, which means ‘when you don’t have anything to do’, from the same word as vacant. We felt it was the wrong word for our times away so we call them holidays, a holy day. We are very particular about our holidays. God has shown us that it’s a sin to never take a holiday. It’s not virtue, it’s not spirituality, it is slavery. You check Israel’s calendar as God ordained it and you see how many holidays they had to take. They’re not holidays because somebody wants to be lazy, they’re holidays because God has said: “you take a holiday.” It should be a ‘holy day’, set apart for God, and to rest before Him. That is an expression of the confidence found in Philippians 1:6, of being confident that he who has begun a good work will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.’