Your Will

I'm an NIV guy. I don't really know why. I suspect that I just like it because it is the version I am most familiar with and so I am comfortable with it. However, even twelve or thirteen years ago I recognized that I could increase my understanding of the scriptures by studying multiple versions. Here is a great example of that.

Philippians 2:12-13 says, "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (NIV). I like the way the Contemporary English Version says it, as I think it more clearly communicates the meaning of the verse. In the CEV, verse 13 says, "God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey him."

Do you realize what that means?  When you allow God to work in your life, He doesn't ask you to do a bunch of stuff that you don't want to do.  That doesn't mean that you wouldn't make other choices for yourself, but it does mean that you will want to do as He says.  Part of that is because God changes your heart to want the things that He wants for you.  However, I also think that it is because the deep-seated desires of your heart are part your design--the design God made you with.

Most of us struggle with the idea of giving God our lives.  I think we get this idea in our heads that Christianity is all about giving up everything that we want in this life for the sake of a better after life.  I only think that's half true--there is a better after life.  However, true Christian living is a pretty good life in and of itself.  Even if there were no after life, living in the will of God is a better existence here on earth than we could ever experience otherwise.