Holidays, especially at the beginning of a new year, are a great time for reflection. As my husband and I experience the simplicity of being ‘away from it all’ and the enjoyment of ‘no schedule’ I tend to think about ways to reorganize my life, perhaps to make it more like a holiday?
Other thoughts on my mind include those things I am sure of, things that I can build upon. Life holds few guarantees, yet I’m fairly assured that when we arrive home, I will still teach, quilt, cook meals and need to keep my house clean. Of course there will be all those interruptions and sideswipes that push their way into the simplicity of that to-do list making even the basics an uncertainty.
One thing is different: spiritually I stand on solid ground. God is true and no matter what happens He will not change—and whatever is based on His character stands forever. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
The promises of God are also a certainty. Some of them do depend on my response, but even that response comes from Him. Consider this from 1 John 5:10-13:
“Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”“Anyone who believes” depends on verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 that declare how faith is a gift from God. It comes through hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17), another gift of His grace.
This passage goes on to affirm that eternal life is also a gift. This life is in Christ, and those who have Christ also have life. He lives in those who believe in Him. When God granted me faith, He also gave me Jesus. Now that I have Jesus, I also have eternal life—and I know it.
I’ve known it since that day Jesus Christ made Himself known to me and came in. That was more than thirty-five years ago, and even though I’ve had many ups and many downs since then, I’ve never doubted that I belong to Him. This secure knowing and deep assurance are not based on me, or what I do, or even on how much I trust Him. It is about Jesus. He is the source of my salvation, not myself.
Some may think that this wonderful eternal life depends on faith, as if a person stopped believing they would no longer have it, yet defining the word ‘eternal’ does not allow for that. Eternal is forever, without beginning or end. It has to find its source in Jesus, not in faith which can come and go.
Apart from semantics, eternal life is definitely a God-thing, not what I do or do not do. There was a short time when I did stop believing, or at least tried to because I was losing a battle against a particular sin and came to the conclusion that this being a Christian is far too difficult. Yet God held on to me. He dropped verses into my situation to show me that He was sufficient and that I could win that war. In other words, my salvation (as well as my eternal life) does not depend on my performance but on the power and sufficiency of God.
This is solid ground. It will not change. This new year could bring all sorts of challenges. My husband has an incurable cancer. Any number of disasters could happen to friends, to family, to me, but God is. He is my anchor, the keeper of promises, my life and eternal destiny. Because He is who He is, He is enough.
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