Paul writes: ‘Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose’ (vv. 12-13 NIV). Salvation is a gift from God, so you can’t work for it – but you can work on it. How do you do that? The same way you work out your muscles. If you want to get into good shape, you’ve got to exercise! And the more you do it, the stronger you become. You’ve got to take your faith to the gym and bench press it. It will involve some trembling – that’s what muscles do when they are pushed to their limit. But that’s how they grow stronger. And as you keep doing it, today’s faith ceiling will become tomorrow’s faith floor. Paul writes: ‘For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son’ (Romans 8:29 NIV). The ‘predestined’ part is God’s part, and the ‘conformed’ part is our part. A good example of this is the oft-repeated maxim: ‘Pray like it depends on God, and work like it depends on you.’ If you only do one or the other, it will result in half-baked spirituality. Our destiny is to be conformed to the image of Christ. And God will use any circumstance, good or bad, to accomplish that objective. Hence, Paul writes: ‘Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation”. Then you will shine…like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life’ (Philippians 2:14-16 NIV).
