Confident of This Very Thing

Six verses into memorizing Philippians, I ran into a verse that doesn’t need much work because I’ve turned it over in my mind so many times before. It goes like this:

…being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…

It’s part of a longer sentence; in all of verses 3-7 Paul describes to the Philippians how he prays for them. The whole passage, but especially this verse, is great to pray for someone else, or for yourself. But it’s not so much a request for God to do something as it is a bold affirmation of what he will do.

It’s a repetition of a message that’s at the core of the whole Bible:

God keeps his promises.

God will do what he said he would do.

God will always finish what he started.

And it’s not a maybe. Paul doesn’t say he is “hopeful” about this; he says he is confident about it. Confidence is a bit of a buzzword these days, but I can’t think of any better use for the word than this right here. This is the kind of confidence that’s truly empowering and unshakeable; a holy confidence in the power and promise of God to do what he said he will do.

Even if, at times, it seems like the opposite is happening. When it seems like the world is getting more and more broken, instead of being restored like he promised. When it feels like all you can see is the power of sin and suffering and none of the promises of God even seem possible. When your own heart feels so far from the work he began, you wonder if there’s any way you can actually stay the course.

Maybe you feel this way right now; wondering if God is even working in your life. Maybe you can clearly see how far he’s brought you, but you know there’s a long way to go. Maybe this whole message rings out in your soul because his work in your life is so beautifully evident right now.

Either way, you probably need this reminder: the work God is doing will not be completed in this life. The completion of everything he’s doing - in us as individuals, in his church as a whole, and for all of creation - is reserved for “the day of Jesus Christ,” the end of time and the beginning of everything else.

I like to compare Bible versions when I’m studying a verse or passage, and I loved how the Message version says this: “[he will] …bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.”

You could use all kinds of artistic language to describe what God is doing in the world and in our lives - a symphony, a painting, a story. No one wants to see those things half-finished; they’re a nonsensical mess. But I think we can trust that the greatest Artist ever will complete his work with a flourishing finish like we can’t even imagine.

No wait, I don’t think. I am confident of it.