God Will See You Through Philippians 1:6-8

6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

How many times have you been told (or told someone else) that God will see you through? People say it because it is true. We also say it because many people (often we ourselves) need to be reminded. In the passage above Paul wanted to remind the Philippians that God will continue to be God in his and their lives. I need to be reminded of this on a regular basis.

Paul mentions confidence. Quite the positive word, isn’t it? But confident people can either inspire or annoy me. Some confident people possess an amazing ability to be self-assured and humble at the same time while some are down-right arrogant. I have always said that there is a thin line between confidence and arrogance. It is quite easy to respect a self-assured person but be irritated by those who come off as arrogant. 

The kind of confidence Paul mentions in Philippians 1:5, however, is not related to his abilities in any way. He is merely stating that he is absolutely certain that God is going to continue to be God. His confidence is in what the Lord can and will do. That's the best kind of confidence. 

God is going to continue to use us in spite of the “stuff” of life because that is how He works. The work of the gospel is a "good" work. Charles Spurgeon reminded us:

"The work of grace has its root in the divine goodness of the Father, it is planted by the self-denying goodness of the Son, and it is daily watered by the goodness of the Holy Spirit; it springs from good and leads to good, and so is altogether good."

Because of the gracious goodness of God you and I can continue to face and overcome the challenges that come with what He has given us to do in life. We each have been created by Him and for Him (Colossians 1: 16) with the purpose of serving Him in a good work. In fact, because of His graciousness toward us we can continue to face life in every circumstance, not just the work of ministry or service. God will continue to be God. The real question is …

Do you truly expect Him to be? Will you be confident that God will see you through?

We should expect this. Why? Because Paul noted that we have received the same grace that he received from the Lord (you all are partakers of grace with me). This is why he desired to be with them so much (how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus). He wanted to be with people who loved what he loved, lived for what he lived for, and served the God that he served. That’s normal and expected.

We have received the outpouring of God’s grace and we are surrounded by people who hve received the same. This means that He loves us enough to give us what we don’t deserve and spare us from what we do. That fact alone should cause you to beam with confidence that God will see you through.

Blessings,

~Tony Guthrie