Reading
SAA Notes
Complaint and argument come naturally to us. These are some of the things we must put off! What do people hear from you: how great your God is, or how terrible your church is or fellow believers are?
SJA Notes
* Dear God, please write Your word on our hearts today, plant it deep and grow it, that we might be good soil and bear much fruit.
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, …”
We shouldn’t need to be reminded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
But we do.
And how blessed we are to have Paul’s words here – GOD’S WORD TO US – That reminds us.
Our salvation – WORK IT OUT.
How?
With fear and trembling!
Wrestle with God’s will, work it over in our minds and hearts like a puzzle, a mystery, like a juicy plum seed, like an all-day lolly.
Keep rolling through it, keep being brought back to the realities of God’s word, keep pressing through and grab hold of the hope God has given to us.
This is the calling of every disciple of Jesus, every child of God.
To take time each day in His WORD that tells us of His salvation plan, that wonderful and full providential writing of our names in the book of life, from before the world began.
Work it out!
* Gracious Father,
Please help us to understand what it means to work out our salvation, and our faith, with fear and trembling.
Please Lord, work Your gift of faith in us, even small as a mustard seed.
Amen.