being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. – Philippians 1:6
Have you ever wanted to go to a movie, or you are waiting for a new store or business to open? Most of these things have a sign or notice saying, “under construction” or “coming soon.” This generally means that there is still work to be done before they can show it to the public. They will keep working on it until it is ready according to the plans and visions, they have for it. If it doesn’t meet their requirements, they will keep working on it until it is.
The same thing goes for us when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. God begins working in us, starting from scratch. No matter what age we are God always starts at the beginning. He begins to mould and change us into the person He always meant for us to be. Using what we are and what we have been through, he adds new things and takes away the flaws that will hinder or ruin us. It is an on-going project, one that will always be “coming soon.”
In other words, God is never finished with us until the day we die. You may wonder why this is case. One answer is that if God was finished with us then would be perfect. We wouldn’t need any extra work and we would be flawless. The problem with this, is that Bible says no-one is perfect. There was only one perfect person – Jesus and even He wasn’t fully completed until his ascension into heaven. Jesus was a “coming soon”, a work in progress just like we are.
Since Jesus went through the process, He knows what we are going through. He knows we get frustrated about not being finished. We want to be all that God wants us to be right here and right now. Our failure to understand that this is a life-long project and that it will never be a quick fix. There will always be something that will disrupt the process. In living our lives here on earth, we are in a continuous battle, and we get wounded. Thankfully, God is patient and will fix the areas that need fixing.
“Coming soon” also conjures up images and thoughts that something great is going to happen. It helps to build up the anticipation that whatever is coming will be worth waiting for. When a delay happens, and the opening day is changed, people are disappointed but because they want this, they get over it and start getting excited again. The same applies to God. He is very excited for what is coming, and He does get disappointed when delays occur, but he never stops making sure that we will be ready when we are revealed in Heaven.
If you are worried that you will always be a “coming soon” let God know about it. The peace and assurance, He will give to you that the wait will be worth it will outweigh any doubts and fears. All we need to do is to remember that “coming soon” is a great and wonderful thing to be.
Originally published December 2018