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“…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.”

Philippians 2:12-13

My understanding of salvation 10 years ago:

• A moment in time

• An emotional high

• For those in the “elementary grades” of faith

My experience of salvation today:

• Across a lifetime

• As present as the air we breathe

• The storehouse of the abundance given by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Aren’t you glad we aren’t held to our understanding from 10 years ago? Or even yesterday?

Ten years ago, I would’ve read Paul’s instruction to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” as playing “let’s make a deal” with God. Something along the lines of a transaction. If God does X for me, I’ll do Y for him. Once I’ve played nice, he goes back to his business, and me to my business until this life is over.

As big-picture as salvation is, Paul says it really ought to show up in your schedule…today’s schedule in fact.

Paul isn’t referring to a negotiation with God when he says “work out your salvation.” He means “You know that thing God has been and is working on the inside? Work it outward, to the outside. Bring it into your day, your posture, your relating, your living.”

If I’m reading this right, a few elements immediately grow in importance for each of us.

Our attention

Headlines. Status updates. Beeps. Dings. Chimes. Rings.

If humanity has mastered anything, it’s attention-grabbing. The more you try to multi-task your attention between your stuff and others’ stuff, the more diluted it becomes. And the more depleted you become. You’ll drain yourself trying to avoid, control, or manage what others are up to.

Paul refreshes us with this: “…for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

That’s an attention-shifting invitation, from “What am I doing?” or “What are others doing?” to “What is God doing?” We can look within and look around for evidence of his Spirit, and know it’s accomplishing a good purpose.

Our environment

This doesn’t mean “be in the right place to discover what God is doing.”

It means “God is doing something, right in this place.”

It shouldn’t be lost on us that Paul wrote these words while under some form of arrest - whether in a jail cell or under house arrest. In that place, Paul recognized and reminded his readers that God isn’t restricted by any of our world’s confines. The result? Paul in chains was a more liberated man than many walking around without chains.

Having noticed what God is up to within us, we can look around at the environments around us.

Where does your schedule take you today? Think through the spaces you live in, work in, play in, relax in, learn in, practice in. With God working salvation life within you, those places become locations of his working through you.

Our activities

Finally, what is He doing within? What is salvation’s stirring this day?

We can be assured of this: none of it is condemnation. Which means whatever’s happening inside isn’t for us to earn salvation, but to express it. How? With fear and trembling. Not the anxiety-ridden kind of fear, but the kind of fear that knows our holy God is doing a holy thing in us and through us.

• Are you burdened? Salvation invites you to pray and intercede.

• Are you delighted? Salvation enables you to praise.

• Are you wondering? Salvation ensures you can approach God for his wisdom.

• Are you presented with a need? Salvation enables you to be present with and attentive to those in front of you.

Whatever it is, work to the outside what God is working on the inside. And do it with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

All of a sudden, the very thing the world needs will have happened: salvation will have gotten onto and into today’s schedule.

Nathan