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Mirror Exercise

              In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 1:4-6)

          The last part of this was the verse of the day on my Bible platform, but I seem to be at just the right level of anxiety to need to back up and make sure I have the whole statement, not just the last phrase. At the same time, having included it, my focus has returned to the last phrase.

          We’ve probably all heard stories. Someone is hired to do something, and it just doesn’t happen. Worse yet, the job is begun and abandoned. It’s easy to build a habit of not trusting those who promise to do some work for us. We know we shouldn’t feel that way about God, but it’s an automatic response.

          Another response is that if God is doing this work, we can sit back and relax. No effort needed or desired on our part. After all, God is at work.

          Today, my thoughts around this verse are more what I suspect they should be. Oh, there are times I think both of the other lies, but today, it’s closer to “He is? Could He be? Am I really not a lost cause?” Maybe it’s time to read the phrase a few different ways in front of a mirror:

He/You who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

He/you who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

He/You who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

He/You who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

He/You who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  

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