SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, it's Nancy with your Wednesday edition of our daily walk.
SPEAKER_00: We studied a passage in Philippians this past Sunday that perhaps is familiar to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's verses 3 through 11 of chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to share two portions of that passage with you today.
SPEAKER_00: In verses 3 through 6, Paul writes, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
SPEAKER_00: And I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Then down in verses 9 through 11, he continues that blessing as he says, And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: I've shared these verses as a blessing to family and friends through the years, but as I've been thinking about it since our service Sunday, I've lingered on verse six that says, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Several of us here at the church have just finished a study in Proverbs called the Way of Wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: One of the many truths we looked at is the reality that walking this path of wisdom and deepening our relationship with the Lord, becoming more and more Christ-like in our walk, is a process, not an event.
SPEAKER_00: It's a process that begins when we confess our need for a Savior and the Lord pours out his sacrificial love and his grace on us as he makes his home in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We're on a journey that continues until we meet him face to face.
SPEAKER_00: Some days we'll make great progress in deepening our faith as we worship, as we study his word, and as we serve, and we'll move right on down that path.
SPEAKER_00: And there and there are times when we fall short of what the Lord would ask of us.
SPEAKER_00: We find ourselves wandering off that path.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the Lord is right there to pick us up when we fall, to forgive us and to lead us back when we go astray.
SPEAKER_00: He's there beside us on that path, that way of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion in his way, in his time, and for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: So, my friends, let's press on as Hebrews 12 2 says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.