What to Do When You're Changing and Nobody Can See It Yet

Rusty grew up with a county sheriff for a father and

a school teacher for a mother in southeast Oklahoma, which is

about the last family background you'd expect to produce someone

who ended up in prison. But that's where he ended up. Years

of choice that took him further and further from everything he'd

been given. He came to faith in Christ through a man named

Trevor, but by then the damage was done. The people he loved

most didn't trust him. He'd given them no reason to. He came

out of prison with a changed heart and a track record that

said otherwise. He started paying off fines and court costs

roughly $30, 000 He kept showing up and he kept making phone

calls even when nobody picked up. He kept going back to the people

he'd hurt and telling them things were different, even when

they had no reason to believe him. The trust came back slowly,

one relationship at a time, over years. Then, in April 2023,

Rusty walked through the front door of Dick Connors

Correctional Center in Oklahoma as a free man. This time as the

Prison Fellowship Academy manager, the same facility where

God had started working on him. He said that first morning,

sitting in the parking lot, he wasn't sure he was the right

person for the job. We'll come back to what happened when he

walked through that door, but first...

Welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger. Over

the years, I've seen people come to faith later in life, some of

them with reputations in town that made everyone skeptical.

They'd start coming to church, and you could almost hear what

people were thinking. Just wait. It won't last. Nobody changes

that drastically. And sometimes, those new heard it out loud. The

skepticism followed them into the pew. Things like that can

kill your motivation. You know something's different. You're

changing and you're growing, even if you can't fully explain

it yet. And the people around you are still responding to who

you were. Here's what Philippians 1-6 says, And I am

certain that who began the good work within you, will continue

His work until it is finally finished on the day when Jesus

Christ returns. I have that verse on a large canvas in my

office. It's been on my wall for years, and I look at it often.

Paul wrote those words to people he loved, and the word he uses

for certain in the Greek is a word that means persuaded,

convinced beyond doubt. Paul is persuaded of it, settled on it,

and he's staking his reputation on God started the work, and

He'll finish it. The people around you may not be able to

see what's happening yet, and some of them may be watching

with arms crossed, waiting to see if this time it takes. And

that's all right. God's completion of the work in you is

not dependent on anyone else's vote. And that matters because

the temptation, when everyone around you is skeptical, is to

look for their approval as the measure of whether you've

changed. You keep waiting for someone to notice. You want

someone to say they see it. And when nobody does, you start

wondering if the change had taken hold, if you imagined the

whole thing. You didn't. Because God began the work if you

trusted Christ as your Savior. Because He's still working. What

when the trust hadn't come back is the practical aspect of this

verse. He kept showing up and making the phone calls. He kept

paying what he owed and giving back to the people he'd hurt.

The transformation was happening in real time, one day at a time,

in the absence of anyone else's acknowledgement. And years later,

when the trust came back, it came back because the work had

been going the whole time. The work God's doing in you has been

there all along. The fact that it's not visible yet doesn't

make it less true. On his first day in his new role, an officer

handed Rusty a set of keys. Keys to every gate in the unit. Every

door. He said it this way. Here I am, an ex-incarcerated person

with a set of keys to the whole unit. He sat in a class full of

Prison Fellowship Academy graduates that morning and

started crying. He knew he was in the right place. And then he

said this.

Here's what I want you to hear in that. Rusty didn't wait for

his family to believe in him before he started becoming

someone worth believing in. He kept going when the trust wasn't

there yet and the track record was working against him. God was

completing the work before anyone around him could see it

clearly enough to trust it. Philippians 1.6 says,

doesn't need everyone else to agree with what he's doing in

you to keep doing it. Keep going. The work is happening even when

nobody's acknowledged it yet. Here's today's challenge. Name

one place where the change in you is there but unrecognized

and write it down. Then pray Philippians 1.6 over yourself

today out loud as a declaration over the work God started. He

who began this work will bring it to completion. That's a

promise God made. Lord, you see the people who are becoming

someone different while everyone around them is waiting to see if

it lasts. You know the work you started and you're finishing it.

Give them the ability to keep going when no one is noticing

yet and let them trust that what you began you complete. In Jesus

name, amen. If you need prayer today, I'd love to hear from you.

You can leave me a voicemail at dailydevotionsforbusylives.com

I listen to everyone and it would be an honor to pray for

you by name. Thanks for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy

Lives. Remember, God who began the good work in you will finish

it. Keep going. Come back next time for more encouragement to

help you live grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless and

have a great day.