
The main things we learned about from this part of the bible were these:
1. Christ lives in you. This gives the certainty of the hope of glory.
2. This is worth struggling and suffering for - to see it in ourselves and in others aswell.
3. We struggle on, depending on Christ's mighty power!
4. We need to be encouraged in this so that we are deceived by impressive sounding arguments that throw in other ideas and direct us away from Christ... it's all about him.
We spent some time trying to think through what it means that we press on depending on HIS power, not our own. Because it isn't that we just sit back and watch God do it. We work. Hard.
Is it a bit like being in a tug of war, where we are on the rope pulling hard? We are putting effort in, but we know that it is not all about what we do. The reality is, we know that it all depends on the big guy at the back with the rope wrapped around his waist. If he wasn't there, we'd all be stuffed, and striving to no effect.
With him there, we do our part, secure in the fact that his strength is at work. And as we pull, we glance back grateful, and consciously dependent on him. And continue to pull as much as we can.