July 23

“Salvation is not an event; it is a process.  Salvation is God’s gift, for there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.  Yet with salvation comes the responsibility to work out our salvation.  Once we have been saved, we must claim all that has become ours.”  H. Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day, 7/23

Today Eugenia Price gave an example of this when she said we go on complaining about our weaknesses without realizing that it is we who “trodden down strength” by refusing to act as though we really believe Jesus Christ.  I had an example of this last night when my son did not show up when I had expected him to.  I found that if I began thinking about all the unpleasant possibilities I felt more distraught and more helpless.  But when I directed my attention to God’s faithfulness and trusted that He would work things out according to His plan, I rested easily and was able to fall asleep.  How many other times do I trodden down the strength that God makes available to me?  I can safely say that every time I feel anxious, lost, or confused it is I who is not claiming God’s victory.  It is I who is not believing all that God has shown me about Himself.  But what about the times I feel unloved, persecuted, misunderstood, or in any way hurt?  Are these not due, also, to my forgetting or refusing to claim all that God has for me?

“Blessed are the men whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.  As they go through the valley of [weeping] they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.  They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.”  Psalm 84:5-7