Have you grumbled against God lately or questioned why He’s doing something in your life? Dear believer, by God’s grace, let us replace grumbling with gratitude and questioning with a quiet trust in our heavenly Father, who is working in us, “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Then we will “shine as lights in the world (v. 15), “so that they may see [our] good works and give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). 

As a mother of four children I’ve heard quite a bit of grumbling and questioning. But as I listen to my children, I’m often convicted at how many times I grumble about a particular circumstance or question why God has allowed something in my life. Scripture reveals that these are serious sins. Oftentimes they lead to anger, bitterness, callousness, and discontentment. But by God’s grace we don’t have to grumble and question. Instead, we can be grateful and trust His plans for us. Such gratitude and trust flow from God’s power at work in us. We see this truth in Philippians 2:12-18, which teaches us about the work of God’s grace in the life of the believer.
In light of Christ’s obedience, in which He “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8), Paul exhorts the believers in Philippi to remain fervently obedient to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (v. 12). This salvation that they are to “work out” is the salvation that God, by His grace, has already worked into them. And they are to work it out with “fear and trembling,” motivated by Christ’s obedience.
The amazing truth about grace is that God doesn’t leave us to ourselves to work out our own salvation. He doesn’t save us and then tell us to accomplish the Christian life on our own. Neither does He cooperate with us, as if He does seventy-five percent of the work and we do the other twenty-five percent. No, His grace is just as active in our sanctification as it is in our justification. Justification is an act of God’s free grace while sanctification is a work of God’s free grace. Justification is “our declared righteousness before God, made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection for us,” while sanctification is “our gradual, growing righteousness, made possible by the Spirit’s work in us” (The New City Catechism, A32).
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Christians must live in the light of the imminent return of the bridegroom. If we think our Savior delays, we are prone to grow weary in waiting and begin to fall into sin. The temptation will arise, “if the bridegroom has waited 2,000 years surely He will wait until at least tomorrow or next week… maybe even next year.” Giving in to this temptation, forgetting the rich man of Luke 12, we begin thinking little of sin and the lusts of this world. Taking our eyes off Him who reigns above we set our eyes longingly and lustfully upon the things of the world that are so quickly perishing.

Too many Christians, when they have been long in profession, grow remiss in their preparations for Christ’s second coming…
Matthew Henry
How many years did Noah take building the ark and preaching the righteousness of God? Some have suggested as short as 50 years and others as long as 120 years. In all those years of building the ark and preaching, no one listened to Noah save his sons, their wives, and Noah’s wife.
A Neighbor of Noah
Consider what it might have been like for a young boy living near to Noah and his family. This boy’s earliest memories were with his friends and family laughing at that babbler Noah, his preaching, and his silly ark. That ark was never going to be built. That day of destruction Noah kept talking about was never going to come. As the boy grew he eventually got married. Passing Noah’s land with his new bride, the hull of that ark was barely completed but the preacher was still going strong. After many children, that young man was not so young anymore. His children were getting married, divorced, remarried, and they were having children of their own. That young man filled with strength changed into an older man with the pains and frailties of age. All around him everything was changing except this, Noah was still preaching, and that ark was getting larger and taller.
Finally, too old to do much work that old man liked to take walks to get away from all the turmoil at home. He would complain to himself of his short and bleak life. He remembered the wasted years of his youth and how he wanted them again.  One day while walking, he passed by Noah’s land with some special words prepared for that madman. Approaching Noah’s property, the old man noticed something was very different – things were taking place that had never happened before. Animals from all over were coming two by two and seven by seven, as if guided by a shepherd, and walked right into the ark. But there was more… the old man noticed for the first time in all his life, he couldn’t hear Noah’s preaching. Looking for Noah, he saw him in the distance walking into the ark with his wife, his three sons, and their wives. Suddenly, without Noah closing it, the door of the ark was shut!
The old man quickly turned for home to tell his family what he had seen. As he went it started to rain. The drops started large and quickly grew into torrents. Water seemed to be coming from everywhere. The old man could not get home for the rains came too quickly. He was struggling to stay on his feet, so he wrapped his arms around a tree for support. He was not able to warn his wife of many years. He could not hug his pregnant granddaughter or shake his son’s hand one last time. He saw his friends, filled with merry hearts that morning, swept away by the water near him. In their eyes he saw terror and fear that he had never seen before.
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Our Present Sufferings. Paul speaks of “the sufferings of this present time,” not “the suffering.” He’s speaking of “the time” between Jesus’ resurrection and return. In the “present time” we experience “the sufferings” of persecution at the hands of the world and the devil. “Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13). Ministers experience “the sufferings” of being “jars of clay . . . afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; stuck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:7–9). Added to these are all “the sufferings” we experience because Adam’s sin caused the world to be a fallen place: women’s suffering in childbirth and men’s suffering agony in the course of their work (Gen. 3:16–19). “The suffering” of a fallen world include hunger and loneliness, illness and disease, and the sorrow of death.
Our Future Glory. In contrast, Paul speaks of “the glory that is to be revealed to us.” He’s just said in Romans 8:17 that we’re united to Christ in His suffering and glory. What Jesus experienced as Son we, too, will experience as sons. Think of kids playing with modeling clay or Play-Doh. How do they know how to transform it into a whale, a tiger, or a person? They either have a picture in their minds or in front of them. Jesus is that picture, we’re the clay, and God is the molder. One day, the ultimate experience of fellowship with God will be “revealed” when He glorifies and “transform[s] our lowly bod[ies] to be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). When Paul “consider[s] the[se] sufferings” in light of “glory,” he says they “are not worth comparing.” Our sufferings are earthly; God’s glory is eternal. Our sufferings are temporal; God’s glory is eternal. “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17). Our sufferings are as light on a scale as a feather compared to an elephant, are as insignificant as a dot compared to extending lines with arrows on a number line.
Groaning For Glory (Rom. 8:19–27) 
Creation’s Groan (Rom. 8:19–22). Paul illustrates that this age’s sufferings aren’t worth comparing with glory “because the creation waits with eager longing” (Rom. 8:19). The image is of someone lifting up their head, longing to see something on the horizon, as one might climb a hill in the morning to see the sunrise. What does creation long to see? “The revealing of the sons of God.” All creation waits for us to enter glorious, face-to-face fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Why is creation groaning? “For” or “because the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it” (Rom. 8:20). Something happened to change creation: it became “subjected to futility,” reflecting Genesis 3, where God cursed the ground to produce “thorns and thistles.” Creation no longer lives up to its promise. It’s become “vanity, vanity” (Eccl. 1:2). Everything seems pointless, meaningless, and futile. We know the frustration of not living up to our potential, but this is frustration on a cosmic scale. The creation was “subjected . . . not willingly” but passively; the active cause was “him who subjected it”: God.
He isn’t the author of futility, but He executed His curse because of Adam’s sin. Creation’s subjection is not God’s fault. Like a parent who makes terrible choices stunting the emotional, social, and spiritual growth of their children, so with Adam and all human beings who descend from him by ordinary generation. God, though, didn’t place a curse on creation for cursing’s sake; He did so “in hope” (Rom. 8:20). God placed in the DNA of creation itself this hope: “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). Bondage now, freedom then; corruption now, renewal then; futility now, glory then. Paul summarizes in verse 22: “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Paul switches the image and says creation is like an expectant mother in labor pains (Gen. 3:16). The pain is serious, but it will soon pass.
Paul isn’t adopting pagan mythology of “mother earth.” He’s personifying creation with human characteristics. Why? To encourage we who eagerly longing for sufferings to end so that we can enter glory face-to-face. Be encouraged; we’re not alone in longing for the renewal of creation. Everything around you is too. Every couple of months I go out into the front yard to trim my Phoenix robelinii. I find them an astounding example of hope and patience. I’m constantly cutting off branches, cleaning up dead ones, and removing messy flowers. But I hardly water or fertilize them. Yet, they’re taller and more lush than before, as if they are patiently enduring my neglect. What’s amazing is how the trees hidden under the shade of my neighbor’s roof and nestled in the back of my planter have grown toward the sun. Entire trunks contorting. Branches from one tree stretching out over those closer to the sunlight. All in the hope of light. In a similar way, creation is waiting for its renewal, patiently yet earnestly groaning for restoration.