I was saved when I was 15, the Lord came and rescued me from myself. His sweet and sovereign hand, 40 years ago this month, changed my life forever! I treasure the sweet testimony He has given me. But I just have to say that I am still getting saved. Have you ever read the verse, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him?" (Col 2:6) How did I receive him? By grace through faith, period. No works, no hoops, no nothing, nothing but His life exchanged for mine. And what do I get from it? Everything pertaining to life and godliness, I get to stand before the Father and He sees Jesus superimposed over me...and He says to me, "Welcome home, daughter, everything I have belongs to you".
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm still getting saved by grace. Not salvation, but the working out, the living out of my salvation. This week He picked my chin up off the ground and gave me joy. I mean really, He took my sorrow and gave me joy. And the most remarkable thing to me is this, I can't tell you how it happened. There is no formula, no magic words, no hoops, no great religious experience, no great theological revelation...just God, just grace.
I do want to say a little bit about the how. On Sunday I went to a worship service at church where I experienced a profound a deep expression of some grief I'd been carrying around for quite awhile. You know, that baggage we drag along and get so accustom to, we don't even know it's there? Yeah, that. Anyhow, all these feelings surfaced a couple of weeks ago and I was doing my best to get a grip on them. I recognized the feelings, wrote about them in my journal, asked the Lord for wisdom and revelation regarding the origin etc. He did give me some insight and understanding, but the heaviness I felt was still there, and Sunday night at church it all came tumbling out. The only thing I could do was cry out to Him in desperation.
The next night was Monday and there was another service at church, focused on healing. There was praise and worship, teaching and prayer for healing. I didn't go forward, I was there to support a friend. Ha, God had other plans! I left a changed woman. I left with joy, the heaviness was gone and hasn't returned. I was reminded of the scripture, "weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning". Truly, the Lord healed my heart and took my grief. And isn't that who Jesus is? Isn't that what Isaiah 53 says about him? "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted".
And so once again, I was saved. Gloriously saved. And I will be continually saved until I die and spend eternity with Him. The only thing I did was seek Him out and spend time in His presence. And He did the rest. i love that it was all Him. I love that I can't point to something I did. I love that He is the same Jesus whose compassionate heart healed hurting sick people! The same Jesus whose mere presence allowed a sick woman to receive healing just by touching His robe. He is the same Jesus of Luke 4:18-19
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
He hasn't changed a bit, He's every bit as compassionate and present as He was 'back in the day'...Oh gosh...let's just run into His arms every chance we get...a friend of mine used to tell me, 'He's tapping His foot waiting for you, Terri'. She was so right, and He's waiting for you too!
No comments:
Post a Comment