“I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I was watching a movie the other night and in one scene a dad had taken his kids backpacking in the mountains. As they were hiking to their intended campsite, he kept telling, “There’s just one more hill.” But then they’d crest that hill only to find another one waiting for them. Sometimes life feels that way. We make some forward progress only to discover just how much further we still have to go. This is especially true when we’re talking about following Jesus and becoming more like Him. Paul here offers us some encouragement in the journey. Let’s take a look.

We love stories with happy endings. And why not? It feels good to get all invested in someone’s story and to then see it turn out well for them. This is the case whether the story is real or made up. I mean, real stories that end well are great, but a well told yet entirely fabricated story can accomplish the same emotional ends.

The only problem with this is that we often stop telling our stories too soon. For instance, we tell a love story but stop at the first kiss. Or maybe we get them to the altar, but that’s it. We stop at “and they lived happily ever after” without giving much thought regarding how hard that can be. Maybe they did live happily ever after, but there were a whole world of troubles between I do and that happy ending. The I do’s were just beginning.

The same kind of thing is true when it comes to following Jesus as well. When we first step into a relationship with Jesus, everything is new and exciting. We look forward to waking up each morning and learning something new about Him from the Scriptures. It’s a little like the high after returning from camp but even better. We are riding on cloud nine. Our baptism is celebrated as one of our major life milestones – which is just as it should be since it is. Too many folks, though, treat walking the aisle and getting baptized as if that’s the goal, the journey’s end.

Eventually, though, the reality of following Jesus day to day sets in and the shine wears off somewhat. We run into something in the Scriptures that doesn’t make sense. We make the mistake of starting to read the BIble from the beginning, get to about the second half of Exodus or maybe the beginning of Leviticus if we are really dedicated where things get boring and weird, we get disillusioned, and we give up. We fall into the first real mess of sin we have created for ourselves since our salvation experience. We encounter something really hard that we weren’t prepared for properly by whoever is discipling us or that we think God should have prevented from happening now that we are following Jesus. We run into something hard and start to wonder if it was all worth it. We wonder when we are finally going to be made perfect in Jesus. Are we ever going to get there?

Paul wanted the Philippian believers to know and God wants us to know that we will. I don’t know about you, but I have had some unfinished projects over my lifetime. I’ve started things, gotten distracted or bored with it, and eventually given up on them. God doesn’t do that. God always finishes what He starts. It may take longer than we want it to take, but He won’t give up. He never gives up. “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

If God has started a good work in you – and, just so we’re clear, salvation in Christ is the ultimate good work He will start in you – He is going to finish that work. He won’t stop until you are fully complete in Christ. It may take from now until the day you are standing before Him in glory, but He will get the job done. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve roamed. It doesn’t matter how hard you have fallen. If you will keep getting back up and following Jesus again, that work is going to continue.

So, take heart. Following Jesus is hard. There are some days that are really good. There are other days that feel really bad. Because Jesus doesn’t change, He loves you the same on both days. He is committed to you on both days. He is interceding on your behalf before God on both days. And on the really bad days, He is actively advocating for you. No matter how your journey winds toward His kingdom, He is actively working in and on and through you by the Holy Spirit every step of the way. He never quits, so you shouldn’t either. You will get there, and you won’t be alone.