To Will and To Do

Sunday 10/27/2013 6:39 AM

In Philippians 2:12-13 Paul encourages his readers to “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”  The writing of Hannah Whithall Smith in The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life brought this passage to mind this morning.  She writes, “God’s promise is, that he will work in us to will as well as to do of his good pleasure.  This of course means that he will take possession of our will and work it for us, and that his suggestions will come to us, not so much commands from the outside, as desires springing up within.  They will originate in our will; we shall feel as though we wanted to do so and so, not as though we must.  And this makes it a service of perfect liberty, for it is always easy to do what we desire to do, let the accompanying circumstances be difficult as they may.”

I believe that the Spirit of God is working in me because there are times when I have received a suggestion from within.  A good example is earlier this year, after one of my colleagues passed away very unexpectedly, I felt like I should write a letter to his widow and his sons expressing my sympathy and letting them know the impact my colleague had upon me and upon some of his students who had shared their grief with me.  In the passage quoted above Smith suggests that it is always easy to do what we desire to do but I would disagree.  I wanted to write a letter but I was uncertain how to go about doing so and I wasn’t sure how it would be received.  As a result, I didn’t write the letter and eventually the desire to do so left.  This is only one example of this type of thing in my life.  It seems that I am more often open to God working within me to will something but when it comes time to act, and actually do something, the obedience is lacking.

Over the course of the past couple of weeks I have again had the desire to write a letter to my colleague’s family due to some circumstances that have arisen.  Unfortunately I find that I am having the same internal conversation, debating the wisdom of sending a letter so long after his passing, worrying about stirring up emotions and feelings that have been previously resolved, and so on.  I have a feeling that if I continue this internal debate the desire will again leave but then I wonder if I am hindering the work of God.  The real problem is that I do not trust God to do the work through me.  If the will to do something is truly the work of the Holy Spirit in my life then God will use the actions that result from my obedience to do his will through me.  I worry about how others will receive or view my actions instead of realizing that it is God acting through me.  I am simply the conduit through which he pours his grace.

I have asked my small group to hold me accountable to write the letter.  I hope they ride herd on me.