God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,
has this solemn counsel:
“Your salvation requires you to turn back to me
and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.
Your strength will come from settling down
in complete dependence on me—
The very thing
you’ve been unwilling to do. Isaiah 30:15 MSG
When I read this verse, it almost took my breath away, because it’s so true! We live like hamsters on a wheel for the most part, always trying to make things better with our limited wisdom and knowledge, both Believers and non-believers. Why do we do this to ourselves? The answer is simple, we don’t understand God’s Word, nor follow it.
So many who read this, see the word salvation and immediately think about asking Jesus to forgive them of their sins and becoming their Lord and Savior. So, they think I’m already saved, this only applies to non-believers. Here’s the problem, salvation is a wholeness word in both the Hebrew and the Greek. It is defined as deliverance, preservation, safety, health, deliverance from the molestation of enemies. How many of us know we need these things working in our lives every day? Although receiving Jesus and His sacrificial work is a one time act, the provision and empowerment it supplies those who do is constantly being used. But just as the verse says, we need to stop trying to supply those things for ourselves.
Once we learn to be totally dependent on God, then our strength will be renewed. We will find that resting in Jesus’ finished work will bring restoration and all the things we desperately need. But like God remind us, we have been so unwilling to do. Why? Because it flies in our prideful independent faces that we can’t do it ourselves. Let’s determine to stop fighting against God and start cooperating with His Holy Spirit to lead, guide and direct us. Then we will know what true victory is.
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