Tag: God’s will

God Will Finish It

On By vickleaIn promises, Scripture, YouVersion App1 Comment

He Started It (YouVersion Daily Refresh, 5-02-25)

When the Apostle Paul was locked in a Roman prison for telling people about Jesus, he sent a letter of hope to his friends back in Philippi. A portion of it said:

“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 ‭1:6‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Though Paul was writing to specific people in the first-century Church, his words are just as true for the global Church today. 

Think about it: Who started this thing we call life? Who made this world and everything in it? Who fine-tuned the universe to actually make sense? Who put you here—at this specific time in history? Who handcrafted your body, your mind, your strengths, and your unique-to-you personality? Who began this good work?

Before you were ever born, God already had you in mind. Before you could even walk or talk or have dreams for yourself, God already had a plan. Before you knew to look to Him or to follow Him or to worship Him, God was already at work—in you, around you, and through you. 

Sometimes it feels like we’re just wasting time and taking up space, without real purpose. But—it turns out—God is intentional and He makes no mistakes. To top it off…

God always finishes what He starts. 

The story isn’t over. When Christ returns once and for all, the work of God through His people will finally be complete.

Until then, let’s commit to God’s good work inside of us. 
Let’s magnify Him in everything we do. 
Let’s believe that He’ll finish what He has begun.

My Thoughts

I like to finish what I start and I generally have good intentions to do so. But sometimes, I am thwarted by others or I just drop the ball myself, losing interest in the project. For many years, I had an unfinished crochet blanket in my closet. I had started it when my son’s wife was pregnant and then I never finished it. It was a nice color and had a nice pattern, and I did enjoy crocheting. As the years passed and I still saw the unfinished blanket in the closet, I tried several times to finish it, but I had lost two things: 1)the ability since my arthritis was painful in my hands and 2)the knowledge since I had forgotten how to crochet the stitches as well as the pattern I was working on. I had lost my motivation to complete the project. My intentions were good, but my follow through was lacking.

I am thankful that God does not have that problem. He starts something and sees it all the way to completion. He is our Creator and His love for us is perfect, not wavering and distracted. Thus, He can be trusted to bring us to the finish line. That truth motivates me to stick with God and to keep trying. I may fall and fail but I know that if I pick myself up and truly repent, God is right there helping me to get back on the right track again. He doesn’t just say, “That’s it! I am done with you. You’re on your own now!” I think many people have had that experience in life with other people and that makes it hard for them to trust God. But God does not lie and He does not quit. He keeps working, molding, shaping, whispering words of encouragement to us. I don’t always see what God is doing or the plan that He has for me, but I know that whatever the end result is will be a good one and the one that is perfect for me. It’s all a matter of believing God’s Word and it says He will finish what He started. I believe that and I hope you do, too.

God’s Will

On By vickleaIn Scripture, testimony, YouVersion App2 Comments

Knowing God is trusting God to do what is best for all, not just for me. I confess that there have been many times when I did not understand God’s will and why things were happening. My trust faltered, and in my weakness, I would find myself crying out to God and asking for reassurance that He is still in control. One such time was when our daughter miscarried when she was almost seven months pregnant. We had just spent a week together in a cabin, enjoying games, outings, food and fellowship with her and her family. The last days we were there, Hope stayed in bed, saying she wasn’t feeling well and just needed to rest. When she and the family left, she told me that she felt fine and was eager to get the sonogram done early that week that had been scheduled for a while already. My husband and I were still at the cabin, this time with our son and his family taking their turn with us. Then the phone call came. Hope was sobbing and I could barely understand her words. But they became plain soon enough, “She’s gone. The baby died.” I don’t know if I have ever felt such heartbreak before. Our beloved daughter was feeling so lost, and we were well over a day’s travel away. We hastily explained to Scott what had happened, packed up and went home (three hours away) and then re-packed and headed to Pennsylvania, praying for God to be with Hope and Aaron and the four children as they grieved. When we arrived the next day, we found that the obstetrician had Hope go through labor and give birth to the deceased infant. Tessa was perfectly formed, but tiny. Tests showed that she had a tumor and died from it. The family was in shock and inconsolable. My lighthearted and faith-filled daughter was silent and sad. My grandchildren didn’t understand how such a tragedy was possible. We went through the days following the loss trying to help Hope cope with the loss and to choose to move on. She was convinced that this was her last baby and she had lost her. Tessa Serenity was never going to walk the earth. I took walks with the younger children around their large property and we talked about where Tessa was now…in the arms of the Lord and happy to be there. But the sadness prevailed. Hope mustered her belief in a good God the best that she could and went on with life. Two summers later, we met at a shopping center on our way to the beach for a trip together again. I had kind of dreaded the trip because the last time we had been together for a vacation had ended in such heartache. When Hope got out of the car, she had on a shirt with a rainbow that said something like, “God keeps His promises.” She then told us, right there in the parking lot, that she was pregnant and that this baby was a “rainbow baby”, a gift after the loss of a beloved child. We cried together and rejoiced in God’s goodness. Less than five months later, little Teagan Noelle was born. I guess I should add here that Hope and Aaron name all of their children with the letter T and online she calls her children T1, T2, etc. The latest, little Teagan, is not called by a number because it was too difficult to skip the number 5 that belonged to Tessa and Teagan and the other kids didn’t understand the number 6. So Teagan became “sweet Tea” and that’s her nickname to this day. She knows that she has a sister waiting for her in heaven who was to be number five. And we all praise God for the blessing that she is. She just turned eight, a precocious and loving child who is the delight of all in her family. So why did Tessa have to leave this life so early? I don’t know and probably never will. But these events led me to lean hard into God and to trust His sovereignty even when I don’t understand it.

From the YouVersion Bible App Devotional, “Daily Power by Craig Groeschel, Day 4”

Years ago my wife Amy’s brother, David, was very sick. He was in the hospital, so we had everyone we knew praying for him—for his health, for healing, for a full recovery. For weeks and weeks, we prayed and prayed. But after several months, God healed David in a way we hadn’t planned. My brother-in-law, who was only thirty-four, left this earth and joined God in heaven.

My wife lost her only brother. My in-laws lost their only son. We were devastated and it was hard not to wonder, “Where was God in that? Why did we have to lose David?”

I helped do the funeral, and I invited people to know the Jesus who had changed David’s life and set him free from the bondage of a dark past. That day so many people said yes and invited Christ into their hearts, including Uncle Blue, a great guy and one of our family’s favorite people.

Recently Amy and I were reflecting on the positive ripple effect we could see in so many lives—all because God did not answer our prayer the way we wanted. “Would you trade everything that’s happened to get your brother back?” I asked. Without hesitating, she said, “No way. What God has done through our loss is greater than anything I could imagine.”

God’s will matters in the midst of our prayers. You don’t always get what you want when you want it. But you can always walk by faith and trust in God’s will.

Power Lift: Dear God, there’s so much I don’t understand about your ways. Today help me walk by faith and not by sight, trusting in your perfect and holy plan for my life.

Jesus’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane should be our prayer daily.

The Everlasting God

On By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments

Sometimes, in the storms of life or even in the everyday hustle and bustle of routines, we may have a tendency to forget that God is still working out His plan. This week, in the midst of breathing treatments and remembering to take medications at the right time and adequately spaced from other meds, I got so preoccupied with my illness that God has been there, but I was not paying a lot of attention to what He has been doing in my life. This morning when I awakened for the first time in over a week without coughing, I was reminded of His great power and His control over all. It’s not that I forgot to give God thanks. I did that. I acknowledge Him every day, but my priority has been on getting better and breathing. And it’s not that my priority is bad…it’s just not the most important thing in my life. That would be God…the God who made me and everything else.

It’s hard for our finite minds to conceive of God, an omnipotent and loving God who was there before the mountains were even formed. Because we have a beginning on our birthday and an ending on the day we die, we seem to try to put everything into that same box. Long before I recognized that there is a God who created and sustains life, God was there. He didn’t need me to acknowledge Him in order to be. He just was and is.

Today in my devotional, I read about the destruction of Babylon, part of God’s plan. God used Babylon to judge the sins of many nations, including Judah. When His plan was completed, He sent Persia against Babylon and Babylon ceased to exist. I don’t pretend to understand how God raises up and destroys world powers, but I do know that He is in control. In this election season, when the world seems to be rocking and pivoting to hear all of the words of the latest candidates, we need to be mindful of the fact that no one gets into power without God’s allowing it and no one stays in power without God’s blessing. We may not like the current administration (I don’t; I think it is one of the most evil ones we have ever had), but God can use the leadership to speak to a nation that needs to repent. It’s not the words that leaders say that give us insight into what their motivations are. It is their actions, their deeds. If we have a leader who lies and is greedy, then can we not learn that this is the condition of the heart of our nation? Fretting about the election will not put your guy in office; God does. If the last election was fraudulent, God allowed it to happen. I am not saying that God controls every last part of every election, but I am saying that if He wants to, He can. We have to allow God to be God, of our lives (including our health) and of our out-of-control world.

What do we do as Christians when we see what is happening on college campuses? What do we do when we see such anti-Semitic fervor in a nation that has been an ally of Israel for decades? We pray! God is right there watching all of this roll out and He is not caught by surprise or wringing His hands in anguish. He has a plan, a plan to restore people to Him, and He is working out His plan little by little. We may not see it, but it is happening. Like awakening this morning and breathing more freely, the work has been going on but I didn’t see the evidence of it until I could take a breath without gasping. Likewise, one day we will see the evidence of God’s work in our world, in our nation, in our families and in ourselves. We have to hold on and continue to pray. And when we are praying, our prayer should be that God’s will be done, in Israel and in all of the world. What God has said will come to pass. He is the everlasting Father who spoke the world into existence. Nothing is too hard for Him!

Talk to God about Everything

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

I am really enjoying my daily time with God and I do try to talk to Him about everything. Sometimes, I tell Him how joyful and thankful I am. Sometimes, I tell Him all about my anxiety and problems. And other times, I just vent and tell Him that I am frustrated at how long He is taking to answer a prayer. I used to think that I had to always hide my true feelings before God, just being totally respectful and quietly asking for my prayers to be answered. Then, the more I read God’s Word, the more I saw that great men in the Bible like David just told God exactly how they were feeling. And God did not immediately destroy them for their honesty. He understood. I know that He understands me, too, when I am feeling overwhelmed with one health issue after another or when I am disappointed that plans to visit family did not work out. God is a big and loving God who knows us intimately and loves us. So the next time you spend time with God, tell Him everything that’s on your heart…He will listen compassionately and give you peace and comfort in the situation, no matter what it may be.

What does God want you to do with your life?

The only way to know God’s will is by getting to know Him. It’s through drawing near to God that His guidance becomes evident. There isn’t one correct way to do that, but there are steps we can take that will help.

Seek God through Prayer.
Think about a close friend. If you’ve known them for a while, you know what they like and dislike without asking. The closer you are to someone, the more you understand them. The same goes for our relationship with God. Knowing God’s will comes from having honest conversations with Him. That’s why we need to get into the habit of talking to Him regularly, about everything.

Search the Scriptures.
God’s will for your life will never contradict what is written in Scripture. So as you get to know God through prayer, familiarize yourself with His Word. The more you study the Bible, the more your desires will begin to reflect God’s will. And when this happens, you can confidently ask God anything—and He will hear you.

Listen to the Holy Spirit.
Listening for the Holy Spirit often requires silencing the noise around you. When you get rid of distractions and stop fixating on fear, you start to notice God’s peaceful presence in your present circumstances. So as you pray and search the Scriptures, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, and allow God to silence any distractions. (And if you want to practice intentionally seeking the Holy Spirit, try the YouVersion Guided Prayer feature.)

Look for confirmation from wise people.
Consider inviting people who are further ahead in their faith journey to be your “wise counsel.” Ask them to seek God’s will for your life with you. This step must be done alongside the previous ones. Seeking wise advice should confirm what you sense God is already telling you to do—it should not take the place of talking directly to God.

You may not always get it right, but the more you try to understand God’s will, the easier it becomes. When your desires align with God’s desires, He can trust you to do what is right. Applying these steps will help you, but discovering God’s will is a lifelong commitment that requires seeking God every day.

Being Made Holy

On By vickleaIn Scripture4 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I have not arrived at the place where I would call myself “holy.” I am being made holy, every day, as I press in closer to Jesus and learn how to be more like Him.

Jesus considers us perfect because of His completed sacrifice, but He also knows that the work in us is ongoing. We are “being made holy.”

God’s will is not to leave us where He finds us but to move us forward with Him, being made holy. Jesus sacrificed Himself once for all time (even for those who lived before the days of Jesus). God’s heartfelt desire is that we be made holy and He needs our cooperation to help make that happen in our lives. He will not take over our free will choices; we have to choose daily to serve and to want to be more like Jesus and more pleasing to God as we become more holy in His sight.

Jesus is our High Priest and He finished the work that the Father sent Him to do. Then He sat down. When do you sit down? When your work is done…when you have done all you can. Now the work of becoming holy is on us…we have to work towards being more like Jesus. No, we are not saved by works, but we can please out Heavenly Father by becoming more holy every day. Every day is a new day to make new choices that will honor and glorify God. Make good choices!

Cup of Suffering

On By vickleaIn Scripture3 Comments

We take Communion at our church every Sunday and I never want it to become a rote, automatic thing. I want to really think about Jesus’s sacrifice and all it meant for Him to give His life for me. But I do remember that in the Garden of Gethsemane, His prayer was for God to take away His cup of suffering. Oh, my! How often I have prayed to God to take away my troubles, sorrows, sickness and pain! But then I forget to go on to the next part that Jesus prayed. He sincerely prayed for the Father’s will to be done, not His own. That is the kind of prayer that we should be praying when we cry out to God for Him to release us from our suffering. We need to recall that God knows best and is in control of not only our lives but the lives of all on earth. In my little corner of the world, I may be egocentric, but I should not lose focus on who is in control of my life, even in the midst of suffering. My trials, “suffering” if you will, do not even begin to compare with that of Jesus. But He was willing to go through death on the cross in order to fulfill the Father’s will and save all of mankind. Does anyone want to suffer? Of course not! However, some suffering is a natural part of life; things happen and you just have to get through them. But, following Jesus’s example, I want to be able to say to God that I’m not liking the suffering but I am willing to go through it because I want His will to be done in my life.

Have a blessed Sabbath Day, remembering that God’s ways are always best even when we don’t see it at the time.

God’s Answers to Prayers

On By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments

I am sure that if you are like me, you spend a lot of time talking to God, telling Him your problems and challenges and then waiting for an answer from Him. Sometimes, in fact a lot of times, I get impatient waiting for the answer and try to help God out. He doesn’t need my help. He just needs me to believe and to wait.

This verse says WHEN they call on Him, not if we call on Him. The expectation from God is that we will call on Him and His reply is that He will answer. He will be with us and will rescue us. I think the honor part comes in when others see that we trusted in God and He answered. All glory goes to the Father!

It is important that before we go before the throne of God with our petitions, we know what His will is. So, how do we do that? We have to immerse ourselves in His Word in order to discover what His will is. We have to have a relationship with Him in which we talk to Him daily and wait for Him to speak to us. Instead of a one-sided wish list that we present rapidly just before we get on with the busyness of our day, we need to take time to just sit in His presence and hear Him clearly. God wants a relationship with each of us, not a bunch of whiners who treat Him as though He is the genie in a bottle who will grant all of our wishes. We need to be aware of how our prayers will affect others and know that God is not just hearing our petitions but also those of millions of others (hopefully) and He has to take into account everyone all at the same time. My finite mind cannot even conceive of such power but God has it whether I can understand it or not, and He answers prayers according to His will. That thought brings me back to the first part of this paragraph. We discover God’s will be spending time with Him and with His Word.

May your prayers be answered according to God’s will and may you rest in faith and contentment knowing that God is working out things that are best for you and for the rest of His Creation.

Teach Me

On By vickleaIn Scripture5 Comments

For almost four decades, I was in a classroom teaching children. Sometimes I taught younger children in a Christian school, but mostly I taught high schoolers in a public school environment. No matter where I taught, I rarely heard the words, “I don’t know. Teach me.” The problem seemed to be that the students didn’t know what they didn’t know so they didn’t know to ask to be taught. That is also my problem when I approach the throne of God. I don’t know what to pray. But today’s Scripture verse addresses this dilemma.

This is ultimately what I need to be taught, to do God’s will. He is my Lord and Savior and He constantly leads me on safe ground so that I will not fall or stumble. I can trust Him to teach me to do His will while I am on earth, to follow Him as a sheep follows its shepherd’s voice. I have to learn the lesson of letting go and just following where He leads. Is this a lesson you need to learn, also?

Have a blessed and glorious day in the Lord! He is worthy to be followed and He will never lead you on a wrong path.