Philippians 2:12 says 'work out your own salvation...with fear..for it is God what works within you'. Loosely paraphrased...

So, what does that mean for us? I hear a lot of talk about Tolle and the greatness of the Presence of Now. Is that not just the Kingdom of God within us? What about this working out salvation on your own? If Jesus died for us, for our salvation, then why do we have to work on it?

Simply, it in my opinion, it is because we have to work on ourselves as well as accept God's grace. Taking a good hard look at ourselves is very difficult to do because often times we see things that we don't want to see, things that are in the shadows of our spirit. The salvation can illuminate those areas and bring light to the darkness, but it requires us to see what is in those shadows first.

After recently ending a relationship with my partner after three years, I was devistated. I had just lost my mother and now I had lost my partner. I really struggled with the injustices of the relationship and the torment from the relationship and the loss of it. Yet, I realised that I had allowed those things to happen to me because I did not take care of myself and because I allowed my non negotiables to become negotiables. Tolle talks about the Ego and the Pain Body. I absolutely agree with him on that. Jesus says to live in this world but not be of this world. Perhaps he meant let go of your pain? I think he did. I have done a lot of work on myself and realised that my former partner was my biggest life teacher, not a monster. I have gratitude for him coming into my life because now, I have realised that he has taught me something that I had never had before: self respect and self value. I think as Christians sometimes we tend to focus on the other instead of ourselves. Sometimes we believe self care is selfish: it is not. I call it the airplane theory. Put your own oxygen mask on before you put it on someone else. Imagine if we all cared for ourselves, took time for ourselves to really work on our pain, our ego, our shadows? If we help ourselves first we can effectively care for others.

So, does working out your own salvation mean that Jesus has no place in our life? Not in my opinion. It means that God gives you the strength and acts in us according to God's purpose. It means you have to work on yourself to let God do God's job too.

Looking at ourselves is hard work. It takes time and patience and a lot of energy. It hurts sometimes as well to realise that we are not the person we project to the world. It takes courage. It takes grace and it takes salvation. It takes your part of salvation. God is extending and hand for you to shake it. You have to put down what you are holding in your hand to do that!

So...salvation...work of the self? work of God? both? neither? What do you think?