![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/barn-raising-300x200.jpg\")
God is working in every obedient Christian. Right now. He is working in me. Right now. He is working in you. Right now.<\/p>\n
To describe this as heartening would be an understatement! Like many preachers, I struggle with the temptation to believe the insidious lie of Malachi 3:14. The devil very much wants us to believe that it is useless to serve God. In this pandemic era of social isolation, reduced or nonexistent assembling, and Christians fighting and splitting churches over dumb stuff like wearing masks, he seems to have a stronger case than normal. Why not give up? It won’t make any difference, right?<\/p>\n
Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. Even if it is not obvious to us, the arc of history bends toward God. He will work out His will, He will accomplish His purpose, and He will glorify Himself through His people if they will let Him do it.<\/p>\n
The health-and-wealth preachers have a point, kind of. God does have a plan for your life. However, His plan is not for you to enjoy earthly happiness. It is for you to put your nose to the grindstone and do right every single day, cheerfully, unfailingly. If you do, He will use you to accomplish what He wants to accomplish.<\/p>\n
We cannot know what that is, not this side of Jordan, at least, and there is no point in speculating. If you preach the gospel and nobody listens, that does not mean you have failed. If you fight to raise godly children but they fall away, that does not mean you have failed either. God knew that His people wouldn’t listen to Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but He sent them anyway. Sometimes the Spirit convicts rather than converting, but that too is in accord with His purpose.<\/p>\n
Throughout history, it always has seemed as though the cause of righteousness is failing. It seemed so when the wicked rejected Noah, when Israel sank into corruption in the time of the judges, when Solomon forsook the Lord, when the Israelites were carried captive, when Jesus was crucified, and when Saul shattered the Jerusalem church. God’s people always appear to be given over to death. If it seems so in the present time, that should not surprise us.<\/p>\n
Of course, the cause of God never actually does fail. Repeatedly, He brings about salvation in ways that no one else could have foreseen. He accomplishes His most spectacular works in the hours that seem darkest.<\/p>\n
So it will be for us, if indeed we do not grow weary and lose heart. If we work, God will be at work in us, and He will succeed in His purpose. Go then, and work, whether preaching or teaching or supporting your family or raising your kids or watching your grandkids. Even if nobody else notices or cares, you can be certain that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew W. Bassford A few months ago, my co-worker, Clay, examined Philippians 2:12-13 in a sermon, dwelling especially on v. 13. I’ve known for years that brethren have a bad habit of focusing on “Work out your own salvation,” to the exclusion of “It is God who is working in you.” However, Clay’s study…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[383],"class_list":["post-35144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-growth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":95111,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/work-because-god-is-working\/","url_meta":{"origin":35144,"position":0},"title":"Work Because God Is Working","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier Text: Philippians 2 Jesus established the example. He left the throne of heaven and lived among us as a servant. God highly exalted Him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name because He was obedient even to the point of death on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34012,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-would-we-need-to-work-out-our-salvation-when-god-is-working-in-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":35144,"position":1},"title":"Why would we need to work out our salvation when God is working in us?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Philippians 2:12, we are told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. But verse 13 says \"for it is God worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.\" I have never, to my knowledge, heard verse 13 quoted before. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38471,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-can-we-pray-to-remove-a-curse\/","url_meta":{"origin":35144,"position":2},"title":"What can we pray to remove a curse?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear sir, I am in my mid-30s and I am unmarried. My two older siblings are also unmarried. I am working but my siblings have no jobs. We live with our uncles, aunts, and their children. Recently, my dad died of a heart attack. One of his brothers died\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34381,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-know-that-im-serving-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":35144,"position":3},"title":"How can I know that I’m serving God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: OK, simple question: I want to know what I can do to just serve God and know it's Him I'm serving. Answer: \"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":761,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-water-baptism-a-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":35144,"position":4},"title":"Is water baptism a work?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is water baptism a work? Answer: I have always been amazed at the dread shown by people toward the word \"work.\" You would think that it was a dreaded disease or something equivalent to sin. The word \"work\" by itself is neither good nor bad. It simply refers to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85255,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/minds-stayed\/","url_meta":{"origin":35144,"position":5},"title":"Minds “Stayed”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton We want the peace of God, but the promise is for him \"whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts You\" (Isaiah 26:3). When peace is missing, we have to check two things: Is your mind \"stayed\" on God? and Are you trusting God? When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}