Article 13 of 14 | Starting Point | Philippians 1:6
by Dr. Timothy Mann
You go forward into a lifelong process, not a finished product. Your conversion was an event; everything after it is sanctification, the progressive work of the Spirit making you like Christ. And the God who started that work has committed Himself to finishing it.
A Starting Point Is Exactly That
We have covered a good deal of ground together in this series. What it means to be born again. Whether God actually knows your name, and He does, completely and personally. Why you still struggle even as a believer, and why that struggle is not evidence against your faith. The Bible. Prayer. The church. What God thinks of your past. How to know your faith is real. What happens when you sin after salvation.
Which leads naturally to the last question: where do you go from here?
A starting point is exactly what it sounds like. The Christian life is not a destination you arrive at. It is a road you walk, and the question of where you go from here is one you will be answering for the rest of your life.
Here is the promise to build on:
“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
He who has begun. Will complete. Until the day of Jesus Christ. That is the entire arc. God started it, God will finish it, and everything in between, every step of growth and every battle with sin and every moment of doubt and every experience of grace, belongs to the process by which He carries you from beginning to completion.
Growth Is a Process, Not an Event
Your conversion was an event. A real, specific, dateable moment when you passed from death to life. Everything that follows is a process, and processes take time.
Scripture has a word for it: sanctification. It is the progressive work of the Holy Spirit making you more like Jesus Christ in your character, your desires, your responses, and your loves.
Weigh that word progressive. It is not instantaneous. It does not happen at a weekend retreat or in a single dramatic experience. It happens across a lifetime of engagement with the Word, prayer, community, and obedience. And it is uneven. There will be seasons of rapid growth and seasons where you feel like you are barely moving. Breakthroughs and setbacks. Advances and retreats. That is not failure. That is what the process looks like from the inside.
Let me put it plainly. If you charted your first year as a believer, it would not be a straight line climbing steadily upward. It would look like a stock chart: jagged, with real dips, trending up over the long run. Do not read a dip as the end of the story. Read the trend.
Stop Measuring Yourself Against the Wrong Person
One of the greatest mistakes a new believer makes is comparing where he is now to where he thinks he should be.
You look at a mature believer who has walked with God for forty years and the gap discourages you. But that believer did not arrive there in a year. He got there through decades of showing up. Through the daily, unglamorous, consistent work of engaging with God through His Word and prayer and community, and getting back up every single time he fell.
Give yourself the grace to be at the beginning. You are a new creation, and you are a new creation at the start of a lifetime of growth.
And here is the part that should steady you: the God who began this work is not impatient with the pace. He is not tapping His foot waiting for you to catch up. He is faithful to the process, and He will complete it.
That word complete deserves a moment. Paul does not say God hopes to finish, or intends to finish if conditions hold. He says God will. Your growth is not a project He might abandon when the returns disappoint Him.
APPLICATION & REFLECTION
Set a realistic expectation for the next twelve months. Not a transformation. A direction.
Pick one area where you want to see growth, name it specifically, and tell one other believer so someone besides you is watching for it.
Then resist the comparison trap. Two questions to carry: who are you measuring yourself against, and is that comparison producing humility or discouragement? Discouragement is usually a sign you are looking at the wrong person. Look at Christ, and look at where you were a year ago.
NEXT IN THIS SERIES
Knowing that growth takes a lifetime raises the practical question of how it happens. In the final article of this series I want to give you the four habits that sustain the journey, and a vision of what your life is actually part of.
If you missed the beginning of our series “Starting Point” find the article links below:
Article 1: What the Bible Actually Is, and What It Does to You
Article 2: How to Actually Read the Bible When You’re New to It
Article 3: Is Prayer Really Just Talking to Yourself?
Article 4: How Do I Actually Pray?
Article 5: Why Do I Need the Church?
Article 6: The Church Needs What You Carry
Article 7: What Does God Think of My Past?
Article 8: God Is Doing a New Thing in You
Article 9: How Do I Know My Faith Is Real?
Article 10: Three Marks of a Life God Has Changed
Article 11: What Happens When I Sin After Salvation?
Article 12: What to Do the Moment You Fall
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What should a new Christian do first?
Start with the ordinary means God has given: read the Bible daily, pray daily, and get planted in a church that preaches Scripture faithfully. Those three, practiced consistently and imperfectly, do more over a lifetime than any dramatic experience.
What is sanctification?
Sanctification is the progressive work of the Holy Spirit making a believer more like Jesus Christ in character, desire, and conduct. It begins at conversion, continues throughout life, and is completed at glorification. It is God’s work in you, though you are called to actively participate in it.
Why is my Christian growth so slow?
Because sanctification is progressive by design, and because it is uneven. Seasons of apparent stagnation are normal and often precede significant growth. The measure is direction over years, not velocity over weeks.
Will God give up on me if I keep failing?
No. Philippians 1:6 states that the One who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Your growth depends on His faithfulness, not on your consistency, and He has never abandoned a work He started.