God Will Do It
Just like adjusting a thermostat, trusting God means setting our heart on Him and letting His life do the rest.
Devotional Credit: Abide Above
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Today’s devotional from Miles Stanford is a gentle and glorious reminder that the Christian life is not about our efforts to become more Christlike, but about God's unwavering commitment to express Christ through us. The maturity of the believer isn’t marked by an increase in spiritual striving but by an increasing awareness that “it is God who works in you both to will and to do.” This truth breathes peace into the soul: it’s not up to us to make ourselves into something. It’s God who does the willing and the doing.
C.A. Fox’s poetic words help frame our trials as loving touchpoints of God’s transforming affection. Every correction, every test, every chastening is not to break us down in shame but to remove what cannot stand and to reveal the strength of Christ within. When we come to the end of ourselves, when striving ceases, and we rest in our union with Christ, we find He has been doing the work all along.
Our identity is not in what we achieve but in what He fulfills. Joseph’s strength was not his own—it came from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. So too with us. The Christian walk isn’t about presenting a more polished version of ourselves to the world; it’s about expressing the life of Christ who now dwells within. That’s the testimony that matters—not merely telling others about Jesus but being so yielded that He shines through us in the midst of a rejecting world.
Personalized Journal Entry – Voice of the Holy Spirit
My beloved, rest your gaze on Me. You were never meant to carry the burden of becoming something. I am the One who began this good work in you, and I will carry it to completion. My power is not partial; it is full. My grace does not ask you to improve yourself; it invites you to yield.
Let the correction you face, the refining, the deep inner stirrings—let them all point to My tender affection. I do not expose wounds to shame you, but to remove what cannot remain. My goal is not your effort, but your expression of My Son. I am working in you both the desire and the follow-through, both the hunger and the holy living.
You are not building a pillar—I am. You are not writing My name on your life—I am. When you cease striving and remember that you were crucified with Christ, you make room for Christ to live in you, to take His rightful place at the center. My power has already given you everything needed for life and godliness. I invite you not to work harder, but to trust deeper.
Look again at the arms of Joseph—strengthened not by determination, but by the hands of the Almighty. So it is with you. What I begin, I finish. What I touch, I transform. What I indwell, I glorify.
Scriptures referenced: Philippians 2:13, Revelation 3:12, Genesis 49:24–25, 2 Peter 1:3, Galatians 2:20
Real-Life Analogy
It’s like a thermostat in your home. You don’t create the heat or coolness—it’s the HVAC system that does all the work. Your part is simply to set the temperature and trust the system to follow through. You don’t force the warmth into the house; you rely on what’s already been designed to deliver it. Likewise, you don’t need to generate godliness—you simply rest in Christ, and the Spirit brings it to pass.
Prayer of Confidence
Father, how freeing it is to know that I don’t have to manufacture godliness, bear the pressure of transformation, or strive to be something You’ve already accomplished. I rest in Your power, already at work within me. I rejoice that all things pertaining to life and godliness are mine in Christ. You are writing Your name upon me, You are forming the life of Your Son in me, and You are glorifying Yourself through me—not because of my striving, but because of my surrender. I walk in that peace today.