Working it out

“… 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” (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV).

I’ve been trying to take better care of my health since turning 50. The last two years I’ve been pretty faithful in working out at the gym three days a week. It helps. I always feel better when I’m working out regularly. It’s amazing how expending energy makes me feel more energetic.

I actually joined the gym a couple of times before, but never really got into a workout routine. I joined and paid the monthly membership, but since I rarely went, I never saw any results. Too bad. Gym membership apparently isn’t enough. You actually have to go regularly and workout in order to see improvement.

I’ve done this before. I bought a workout bench and barbells. But after a furious couple of weeks of lifting, they ended up collecting dust in my garage. I’ve purchased booklets, plans, DVDs, equipment, etc. Nothing worked, until I started working it out.

God gave me my body. It has a heart and lungs. It has muscles (OK, not that well defined. But they’re there somewhere). He has given me all that I need for physical health. But I still have to “work out” what He has “worked in” me.

Spiritual health is not unlike this. Just as God gives us physical life, He is the only One who can make us alive spiritually. We cannot do this work. Only God can do the work of salvation in us. Only through His Son Jesus can we be born again spiritually.

Maybe you’ve joined a church and tried church membership. Maybe you’ve even paid your dues when the offering plate was passed. But it hasn’t worked for you. You still feel empty inside. You haven’t seen any spiritual results.

Perhaps it’s because you’ve never asked God to do His work of salvation in you. There’s nothing to “work out” unless God first “works in” us. Or perhaps God has begun that good work in you, but you’ve never worked it out by yielding every arena of your life to His control.

I want to be healthy physically, so I’m trying to work out more regularly. But even more importantly, I want to be healthy spiritually. I want to rely on God’s work within me and to submit myself more fully to Him, so that His inner work is “worked out” in my entire life.

We can be confident of God’s good work in our lives. He will finish what He started. Depending on His work in us, we can work out what He has worked in.