Philippians 1:6

NASB:                For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.

NLT:                      And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

VOICE:               I am confident that the Creator, who has begun such a great work among you, will not stop in mid-design but will keep perfecting you until the day Jesus, the Anointed, our Liberating King, returns to redeem the world.

Confidence to Do What God Calls

The confidence Paul talks about doesn’t come from our own abilities, but the confidence Paul describes rest in God’s faithfulness to complete what He has begun in usd. God is the one who initiates our salvation and spiritual growth. The work we’re called to do is follow God’s salvation and sanctification process. It’s how we work to avoid the temptation to sin and how we start to be set apart for the purposes that God designed. This will continue until our journey is over when the Day of Christ happens. We do not know when this day will be, which you will start to hear preachers push to be in a relationship with Christ ASAP.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How does your confidence show in your daily life?

The Work God Wants

God is the one who perfects the work being done. Our role is to actively participate in His commands through obedience, prayer, and engagement with Scripture. Understanding God’s command can be very difficult of our world today. There’s a lot of different people that try to share how they understand scripture. We hear everything today from Christian Nationalists, Conservatives, Progressives, theologians, new Christians, and everyone in between try to share their perspective of the Bible. However, we fail to recognize that this is just a perspective. It’s not, pun intended, gospel. There is a way that it was originally, and there is a way for us to read an accurate understanding of what, why, and how the original authors said what they said to their audiences. When we can understand the lesson of what’s been taught, we can look to see how that lesson applies to our current world, if at all. The response is often where we tend divisions and separations take place.

Prayer can be a confusing thing for new Christians, and honestly traumatic for prior Christians. The act of praying itself may not be traumatic, but it’s often how other Christians have utilized prayer. Some Christians have used prayer to coerce, survey, and gossip about each other. Leaders can teach that prayers must be “answered” a specific way, and any doubt is disobeying God. They will teach that suffering shows that we are defective. Overall, pray can train our own nervous system to connect God with threats instead of refuge. Psychologically, this belief structure can produce shame, hypervigilance, and learned helplessness. You can start to look for wrong thoughts, being afraid of punishments, and an overall sense of panic when you pray. So, how can prayer help then? Prayer should be a space for sharing the truth, not making a performance. Prayer should be built on trust and peaceful self-disclosure. Prayer helps us organize our emotions, reduce isolation, and creates a self-care practice that can steady our mind and body.

We need to stay engaged in Scripture. Ask questions. Research. Build connections between characters and themes. Don’t take everything at face value, but take the lesson being taught and build a pattern. Use different translations of Scripture. Follow different preachers to obtain a vast understanding of interpretation. All these things and more are how I’ve built my knowledge and spiritual journey. Following preachers such as Craig Groeschel (Life.Church), Steven Furtick (Elevation Church), and Michael Todd (Transformation Church.) I also listen to the BibleProject podcast and watch the short videos from Pastor Paul Drees and Dan McClellan on TikTok. This doesn’t include the various books I’ve read as well, and the personal journeys I’ve had through the three churches I’ve served under and the eight or so pastors I’ve worked alongside. This journey will not be your journey. Your journey will be different, but it’s yours and God’s. Allow God to lead you and guide you to the sources you need to hear, follow, and participate in so that you can build your gifts and talents and do what He calls you to do.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Between obedience, prayer, and studying scripture, which do you need to strengthen and why?

Real Talk of Prayer

Instead of our PRAY Action, I want to continue our conversation about prayer. Prayer is not automatically healing or harmful. It depends on the journey you have had, have, and will have with it. If prayer was connected to humiliation, it could be a trigger. If it’s reframed through autonomy and honest emotions, it can be a beautiful ground technique. How the prayer process works is in your control, meaning it can be done with however you see fit.

Trauma can distort the true image of God. God is a healer, and your prayers can include grief of unlearning and the process of relearning God as patient, nonviolent, and present. You are allowed to say that you’re hurt, you don’t understand, or you’re angry. It does not pull you away from your relationship with God.

Here are five tips to re-introduce prayer into your life:

1. Give yourself permission to stop praying the old way.
2. Start by lamenting, journaling, or saying very simple prayers.
3. Potentially start therapy alongside proper spiritual care when needed.
4. Find a community that doesn’t use fear, shame, or control.
5. Relearn prayer as a relationship, not evaluation.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What questions or concerns do you have about prayer?

Sources

• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2831652/
• https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2025/07/18/trauma-prayer-healing-250423/
• https://davidruybalid.wordpress.com/2023/01/11/a-liturgy-for-healing-from-spiritual-abuse/
• https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=human-services_masters
• https://ptgi.uncc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2015/01/Coping-functions-of-prayer-and-posttraumatic-growth.pdf
• https://www.paisleyhoney.com/post/the-role-of-prayer-in-emotional-healing-after-trauma
• https://www.paisleyhoney.com/post/the-role-of-prayer-in-emotional-healing-after-trauma
• https://www.calmmindtherapy.org/blog/how-to-heal-religious-trauma
• https://www.validlove.com/blog/the-impact-of-religious-trauma-and-the-path-to-healing
• https://cptsdfoundation.org/2020/01/20/the-mental-health-benefits-of-prayer/
• https://americasbestinmedicine.com/blog/faith-in-the-aftermath-of-trauma-how-spirituality-can-healand-when-it-harms