🌄 Failing Forward – Day 5

Why Your Desire to Change Is Evidence of Growth

Scripture

Philippians 2:13 —
“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

Devotional

Many believers assume that spiritual maturity means effortless obedience — as if the holiest Christians simply wake up wanting to do the right thing. But Scripture reveals something far more comforting:

Your desire to change — even when you fall short — is evidence that God is already at work within you.

Before the Holy Spirit entered your life, you didn’t long for transformation.
You didn’t grieve sin.
You didn’t hunger for righteousness.

The fact that you care…
The fact that you feel the tension…
The fact that you wish to please God…

Those are not signs of failure —
they are signs of life.

Philippians 2:13 tells us that God is the one who plants the desire (“to will”) and the strength (“to act”) inside of us. Even when the acting part lags behind, the desire is still holy evidence of His presence.

Growth often begins invisibly:

• a softened heart

• a quicker return to God

• a gentle conviction

• a longing to be more like Jesus

• an increasing discomfort with old patterns

Do not dismiss these as “not enough.”
They are the early leaves of transformation.

You are changing — slowly, quietly, deeply — because God Himself is working in you.

Reflection Question

Where do you see even a small desire for change that you haven’t recognized as God’s work?

Journal Prompt

Write about a holy desire that has been growing in you — even if imperfectly.
Thank God for planting that desire and ask Him to strengthen it.