Progress

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:3-6

AS PAUL THOUGHT about the believers in Ephesus, he was full of thankfulness and joy. His current circumstances (he was in prison and facing execution) were less than promising, and yet he was full of joy. What made him so happy as he thought about the believers in Philippi?

First, he was happy because he knew they shared with him faith in Christ and they were living out that faith in the world. Second, he was happy because he was confident that God was at work in them and that nothing —including his own death —could keep God from bringing his work in their lives to a glorious conclusion. God started the work, not Paul, and God would finish the work.

Whenever you pray for your child, do you make your requests with joy? If your child is in Christ, you have every cause for joy knowing that your child’s greatest need has been met. And if your child is not in Christ, you have every cause for hope knowing that your child’s greatest need can only be met in Christ.

As you pray for your child in whom God has begun to work, no matter how limited that work may have been to this point, and no matter how far there is to go, you can be certain that God will complete his work. It may be slow. It may be start and stop. It may take a direction you had not anticipated. What you can be sure of is that it will not stop short. It will not be halfway or halfhearted.

The day is coming when the work that God began by calling your child to himself will be complete. Every last vestige of sin will be gone. Your child will be perfected in body and soul. So be patient with God’s way and God’s timing. Be certain he will finish his work.

I pray that ________’s love will overflow more and more, and that ________ will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. I pray ________ will understand what really matters, so that ________ may live a pure and blameless life until the day of Christ’s return. May ________ always be filled with the fruit of salvation —the righteous character produced by Jesus Christ —for this will bring much glory and praise to you.