“. . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

Phil. 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12^b-13, English Standard Version)

In a text exchange with a friend, he confessed that he really, really wants to make some bad decisions. I replied to him that perhaps he might want to try the wanna-wanna method. What on earth is that?!

The wanna-wanna method of prayer and discipled living means that we recognize and admit that we do not have a desire to do the next right thing. So, instead of either beating ourselves up (which doesn’t work) or just giving in to our baser desires (which really doesn’t work), you pray to God something like this:

“LORD, I do not have the desire to do the next right thing. In fact, I have the desire to do the next wrong thing. Please give me the desire, the “want”, to do the next right thing. I don’t wanna, but I wanna wanna.”

This may seem to fly in the face of reality, but I don’t think it does. Our desires are, in fact, often weak and fleeting. Reality means that we acknowledge that fact.

Furthermore, the wanna-wanna method has some biblical warrant. In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul challenges them to obey his previous instruction and to follow Christ’s example. (See Philippians 1:1-12^a.) Paul recognizes that the believers in Philippi need to do something themselves. They need to “work out their own salvation with fear and trembling”, but they also need to depend on God’s work within them (2:12).

Three things should be pointed out here, yea indeed, four!

First, the fact that God is already working in us should motivate and empower believers to work. As someone has said, “We work out our own salvation because God has already worked our salvation into us.”

Second, the “you” in these verses is not singular in the original Greek. Rather, the “you” is clearly plural. The working out of our own salvation is a corporate matter. I fear that we frequently turn the Christian faith into a personal, individualistic quest to improve ourselves. We need to remember that we become together, or we don’t become at all.

Third, the verbs in verses 12 and 13 are in the present tense. The present tense is not used simply for something going on right now. It usually suggests an activity that is continuous, ongoing. We are always to be working out our own salvation, because God is always working our salvation into us.

Fourth, God working in us doesn’t just empower us to obey God. God’s work within us enables us to want, to desire, to will, to do God’s work.

So, the wanna-wanna method recognizes that God creates in us the desire to do the next right thing. When we pray for this, we are simply recognizing our own limits and God’s unlimited power within and among us.

When I was a little guy and my mom would get after me, I would often say, “Momma, I want to be good.” And I think I did want to be good. It wasn’t just a matter of not wanted to be switched with a branch from our forsythia bush. However, what I didn’t know when I was little was that my “wanna-be-good” wasn’t sufficient. I needed God working in me, along with many others, in order for my wanna to be strong enough to resist temptation.

I still struggle with this. I am very much a beginner at the wanna-wanna method. But when I practice it, my life is so much better. And the way I treat others improves exponentially as well.

Prayer: “Oh God, who loves us more than we can ever know, my desires for goodness are so weak. Give me, give us, the good sense to continually pray for the desire to do the next right thing and the power to do it. Amen!”