Getting Below the Surface

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

(Philippians 1:6, ESV)

Many of you know that we dropped some large trees in our yard over the winter. There were two particular stumps left, meaning we needed to either live around them or work at taking them out. If we left them, it’s not that they would be a big issue, but they would just always be there, in the way just enough to be annoying. But taking them out was not an appealing task for me - it requires work. You can see from the picture that yesterday we rented a stump grinder and took them out.

Spiritually speaking, we often leave “stumps” poking up in our lives. We get rid of the ugliest parts of our lives but allow the root / the stump of our sin and temptation to remain. Sometimes we just work to ignore it; other times we try to cover it up - but we refuse to do the work of truly removing the problem. We trip over it, we walk around it, but we let it remain.

King David comes to mind. He truly was a “man after God’s heart”. He lived a vibrant relationship with God, but he too allowed it to falter at times. In 2nd Samuel 11, we see that he not only was slacking off in his duty (verse 1) but allowed his sexual temptation to turn into adultery (verse 4); he even fell to murder (verse 15) in order to cover up his sin. David clearly repented (12.13) but had left a “stump” in his life that tripped him up.

We are called to do the work of not only removing sin but overcoming the roots of sin in our lives. Paul promises in the above verse that God is working and will continue to work out our salvation, but later in the letter (2.12-13) calls us to “work out our salvation”.

What “stump” / what root of sin remains in our lives? Let us honestly and openly ask God today to point it out. Let us then be open to the Spirit of God through prayer and to the people of God through relationship as He may have something to point out to us.