Work out your own salvation

(J.R. Miller)

"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" Philippians 2:12

Each one's battle must be a personal one. We may decline the struggle — but it will also be declining the joy of victory. No one can reach the summit — without arduously climbing the steep mountain. We cannot be carried up on another's shoulder.

God does not put virtues and graces into our lives — as the jeweler sets gems in a ring. God does not automatically remove and replace our unholy and sinful elements — with holy ones. Through personal efforts, each must win his way through temptations, struggles and difficulties — to all noble attainments. The help of God is given in cooperation with our aspiration and energy. While God works in us — we are to work out our own salvation.

"To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me!" Colossians 1:29