Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

February 26– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“Salvation is of the Lord.” 

—Jonah 2:9

 

Salvation is the work of God. It is he alone who takes the soul “dead in sin” and makes it alive. He is also the One who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” He is with us from beginning to end.  The Christian is being saved day by day, and this continuing salvation is the work of God’s continuing grace. If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I live a consistent life, it is because he upholds me with his hand. I do nothing towards my own preservation. I am alive because of him, and all my goodness is from him alone.

Now, if I sin that is my own; but when I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I have defeated a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength empowered me to do it. Do I live a consecrated life? It is not I but Christ who lives in me, and it is God’s Holy Spirit that has set me apart. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing but sin and misery. “He alone is my rock and my salvation.”

As I continue to receive fresh increases of strength, where do I gather my might? My help comes from heaven’s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot produce fruit unless it remains attached to the main vine, no more can I unless I remain in him.  What Jonah learned in the deep ocean, let me learn today in my closet: “Salvation is of the Lord.” [M&E]