“Obedience is becoming a lost doctrine these days. Parents and teachers are advised to ask not odedince but cooperation of children and students. My father never asked me to cooperate. If I hadn’t cooperated, he would have operated!”

~ Vance Havner

Willing and Working

By Vance Havner

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12-13 — King James Version

This combination makes it all the work of God and yet puts us to work. He does the willing and the working. But we “work out what He works in.”

It is a blessed thing to know and to remind ourselves as we move through each day, “God is working in me to will and do of his good pleasure.” But let us remember the other side of it: “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). How few Christians ever think of working out their salvation with fear and trembling in these days of cheap and easy religion! A deep and sober daily concern to please God is the rarest of rarities.

God wills and works, but He moves us to will and work. Our feeble purpose and performance take on real importance when we realize that God is energizing both. The Father hath not left us alone. Therefore we are enabled by Him to do those things that please Him.