Online Devotions: Working Our Salvation

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Working Our Salvation

April 16 (1 Samuel 25:33)

Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! (ESV)

Christ the Lord is risen today! Alleluia! This is the single greatest day in the history of the world…but why? It is hard to understand in a do-it-yourself culture. From the time we are children, we learn that we must work salvation with our own hands. Do this so that you may get that. Good grades keep you on the team. The right transcript and references get you a job. Fulfilling the boss’s desires leads to money that leads to possessions that leads to…that leads to…

David was set to murder a man when that man’s wife came to him and begged him not to do so. David’s words to her, as with so much that David said, carried a message for us. We do not work out our own salvation. We cannot, for there is nothing God needs that we could provide to make right the sins of our lives. We would indeed be in a most desperate state if the story ended there. Praise be to God it did not!

There is no more important day than Easter for the simple reason that God Himself has worked out salvation for us. He took all the sins of the world to the cross, and they crushed the life from Him. And then He crushed death. He rose from the dead and opened the way to true life, both now and in eternity, for all who choose to receive His gift. Blessed is He Who has worked our salvation with His own blood-stained hands!

Father, I praise You! Lord Jesus, I praise! Holy Spirit, I praise You! I praise You, one God, now and forever, amen!

No comments:

Post a Comment

While I welcome comments, even those that disagree with something I have written, I will delete any comment that is profane, vulgar, threatening, or in poor taste.

History of Online Devotions

In January of 1999, I began the Online Devotions with the teens of the church we were attending. Each week they would receive a verse of Scripture, a short reflection, and a prayer. Over the years others subscribed to this email list, and soon the Online Devotions were going out to people across the country and beyond.

In 2007 I published in book format a collection called Desert Days: Forty Devotions for Men.

After suggestions from several readers, I launched in 2010 the Online Devotions blog. Devotions are still available each week by email, and if you would like to subscribe, please indicate so in the comment box.

As I have always said, if one of these devotions touches you, you can be sure it was from God. If one leaves you flat, then there was too much of me in it.