“My work out isn’t working out.” A few months ago, one of my friends started working out again. He really went hard at it, working out at the gym five days a week. Lots of effort, pain, sweat, blood, and tears.

But, two months in, his weight had hardly dropped, and his muscles had hardly grown. He was discouraged. “All that work and nothing to show for it,” he moaned. I tried to encourage him, that if he kept working at it, he would eventually see some change. But, I have to be honest, I wasn’t sure. Some people just can’t seem to lose weight. Others can’t seem to put on muscle, (I’m one of them).

Sometimes we feel the same about holiness. We’re working hard at putting off bad habits and putting on new habits, but we still don’t seem to be making any progress. “All that work and nothing to show for it. How do we keep working on holiness, when holiness isn’t working? When it comes to holiness, we can be sure our work will pay off, because God’s Word is sure in Philippians 2:12-13.

Listen here.