Hear it again:
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,”
Php 2:12 NIV
I have talked about this before, so I will only briefly touch on it today. Salvation is NOT something we can earn. It is a free gift from God to those who will choose to use the Faith He has given us to simply believe what He has already done for us. God, the Father so loved the world that He gave us His one and only Begotten Son so that whosoever would believe in Him, will not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16! It is the entire Gospel! Apart from God the Son and His loving sacrifice, all we have is death…in this world, we experience the death symptoms like depression, anxiety, rage, bitterness etc, then when we leave this world, be perish…forever! Ahhh but if we just choose to lift up our wretched, weak, broken hand of Faith towards God, like that dad who runs head first to his prodigal son, God the Holy Spirit will rush into our own dead spirits and grant us everlasting life. That’s it. All we have to do is receive it, like the beautiful, amazing free gift it is.
We DO nothing to have Salvation. Here is the visual God gave me recently: when I had come to the end of myself, when I realized that there was nothing I could do to help Beckie in her situation, when all worldly hope was gone, I simply fainted into the arms of Christ, and He gave me Salvation and all the awesome virtues that come with it, like the righteousness of God! Like forgiveness of all my sins, past, present and future. Like the Fruit of the Spirit. And most amazingly, His Presence, now and forevermore! Let’s meditate on this Amazing Grace today, yes?
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17; 17- Ro 8:28
18- 1Co 13:13
19- Php 2:12
<>< Peace, Diane
