God Is the One Who Enables You

Philippians 2:12-13 · Fresh Start: When Life Takes an Unexpected Turn

“Carry out your own salvation with fear and trembling. God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes.” — Philippians 2:12-13 (CEB)

All week we’ve traced the downward path of Christ, from shared orientation and watching out for others, through the refusal to exploit power, to the radical emptying and the obedience that went all the way to the cross, and the exaltation that followed. Now Paul turns to us and says: your turn. Carry it out.

But not alone. The same verse that tells us to work contains the assurance that God is the one doing the enabling. You don’t generate the desire for transformation. God plants it. You don’t manufacture the ability to live differently. God provides it.

“Fear and trembling” isn’t anxiety. It’s awe. The recognition that the God of the universe is actively at work inside your ordinary life, shaping your wants, enabling your steps.

The shape of emptying isn’t something you accomplish through willpower. It’s something God enables as you cooperate with a grace that was already moving before you noticed it.

God who enables us to want and to live your purposes, we carry out our salvation in awe of your work within us. Christ, your emptying made ours possible. Holy Spirit, shape our desires until they match your own. Amen.