{"id":1158,"date":"2019-10-22T04:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T09:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=1158"},"modified":"2019-10-07T13:45:46","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T18:45:46","slug":"let-god-do-the-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2019\/10\/22\/let-god-do-the-work\/","title":{"rendered":"LET GOD DO THE WORK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cTherefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to His purpose.\u201d Phil. 2:12-13 CSB<\/a>
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I do not miss the fact that yesterday I sat in church and listened to an entire sermon<\/a> on these two verses.  Today, when I reached in my \u201cFear Not Challenge\u201d bag for a verse, this was the verse I pulled out of it.  According to these verses, God is in control and we are to obey Him. The \u201cfear and trembling\u201d part refers back to what we talked about in yesterday\u2019s devotional, our natural sin nature which wars with what God wants for us.  People within the church debate these verses from a lot of different perspectives, but there is one thing they all agree on, Jesus\u2019s death and resurrection. When we focus on what Jesus has done for us, we can all meet together at the foot of the cross in gratitude.  Consistency in our walk with God is how we work it out. Consistently, day after day, seeking Him, spending time with Him, getting to know Him a little better will allow Him to do His work in us. 
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Consistently working out at the gym gives people buff muscles.\u00a0 Weightlifters who are buff didn\u2019t start out that way. They all started somewhere.\u00a0 They lifted their first weight, ran their first mile, did their first push-up. What makes them buff is their consistency.\u00a0 They consistently go to the gym and lift more weights, run more miles and do more push ups. As a result they have defined muscles and six pack abs.\u00a0 Consistency is key to becoming buff physically AND spiritually. Consistently choosing Jesus every morning is the start. Consistently reading the Bible, spending time with others, and praying will work out spiritual muscles. When we work out our spiritual muscles each day, God will do His part and we will find the life He intended for us.\u00a0 What God did not intend for us is to live a life of fear. He tells us over and over again in scripture, \u201cDo not Fear, I am with you\u201d (Isaiah 41:10 NIV<\/a>).\u00a0 Yet we continue to live lives filled with fears.
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We can apply consistency to our fears as well.\u00a0 Each day, when we choose Jesus, we can give them to Him.\u00a0 Whatever fear we\u2019re facing, whatever giant we\u2019re trying to overcome, we can give it to Jesus. We can let Him take care of it for us so fear won\u2019t steal another moment of our joy.\u00a0 We can consistently say, \u201cJesus, I trust you to overcome my fears\u201d (Phil. 4:6 NIV<\/a>). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTherefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to His purpose.\u201d Phil. 2:12-13 CSB I… Continue reading LET GOD DO THE WORK<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1158"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1163,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions\/1163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}