SALVATION: SIMPLE OR COMPLICATED?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in
your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
(Romans 10:9)

MEDITATION:
There is an old adage that says, “There are no atheists in foxholes”.
The idea is that, whenever we face the reality of death, most folks
want to know there is a God, and that they will be with Him when
they die. Some go through life chasing their own dreams, doing
their own thing, and giving little or no thought to eternity – until
it arrives at their door.

It’s not a bad thing to have goals and dreams, but we should always
include the Lord in our efforts to achieve them. Why? Because we
don’t have the vision He does, and what may seem like a good idea
to us, could actually be a devastatingly bad decision without His
guidance.
    Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go
    to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business
    and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will
    happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that
    appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you
    ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do
    this or that.”
    (James 4:13-15)

As an example, we may have a good job and are offered a position
with another company at a higher salary. On the surface it may
seem like we have been blessed by the offer (and it probably feeds
our ego as well). However, if we include the Lord in our plans, He
may give us some ‘red flag’ reasons for not taking the job.

Without His guidance, we may change jobs and find out the demands
on us are higher, we have a bad manager, the work environment is not
as good as one we left, and all of these issues contribute to an increase
of our stress level. In the end, we wish we had never left our previous job.

Another reason for including the Lord in our plans is, He made each
of us for a specific purpose. He has a plan for each person, and it is a
good plan. Our responsibility is to seek His will in all things, integrate
His plan into our lives, and execute His plan, even if it forces us out of
our comfort zone.

Of course, the first and most important goal for us is to seek and receive
His salvation. Some people may think that salvation is ‘simply complicated’
and others might view it as ‘complicatedly simple’. However, since God has
created us, wouldn’t it just make sense that He would make His greatest
gift to us easy to understand?

In Romans, we are given a straightforward explanation of being saved.
We are told that we should not be ashamed of our relationship with the
Lord. Our fellowship with Him is not something we hide in a closet and
only bring out for a couple of hours on Sunday, and maybe a few other
times.

We should be excited and grateful for the gift He has given us. Have you
ever noticed a young child after they have been saved? They will readily
tell a stranger, “I’m saved”, won’t they? This may be the reason Jesus said,
    “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive
      the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
      (Mark 10:15)
We should be looking forward to any opportunities for sharing our faith
with others.

We are also told we are to “believe with our heart”. Why wouldn’t we
be told to ‘believe with our mind’? Because our affiliation with God is
not to be restricted to an intellectual relationship. Our friendship with
Him is to include our emotions, attitudes, passions, desires, etc.

Everything that makes up our ‘heart’ should be a part of our
fellowship and interaction with the Lord. It is a relationship
that we don’t just think about, but one that we experience
within our heart and soul.

If all we have is an intellectual understanding of God, then we
won’t have a strong desire to spend time with Him each day.
An intellectual relationship with God might mean we want to
learn more about Him, but not to spend time talking with Him
and building a fellowship with Him.

If we don’t embrace and nourish our fellowship with the Lord,
then we can’t expect to have confidence that He is present in our
lives, and we wouldn’t notice His response to our prayer requests
(because we haven’t made any requests).

An intelligent and well-known author decided he would read
the Bible so he could prove intellectually that God does not
exist. However, God bypassed his mind and went straight to
the author’s heart. As a result, the author was saved and has
written books in support of his belief.

Because he ‘believed in his heart’, he ‘confessed with his mouth’.
His ‘heart belief’ guided him in discovering God’s plan specifically
for him, and he became an active participant in that plan. Instead
of continuing his life on an intellectual and agnostic level, he chose
to surrender his heart, his will, his emotions, and his intellect to the
Lord.

ACTION:
Do you struggle with your own relationship with the Lord?
Are you embarrassed to mention your faith to certain people?
If so, why? Shouldn’t we be excited and glad that we have been
saved? Have you surrendered your ‘all’ to the Lord?

Let’s be honest, most of us like to be in total control of ourselves,
so it’s a challenge to say, “Lord, I give You control of my life”, and
really mean it. For instance, some claim that He is Lord of their
life, but are still allowing their own selfish preferences and desires
to prevent them from spending time with Him.

How much time do you spend with God each week? Do you look
forward to meeting with other believers to sing praises to Him?
When it comes to church attendance, do you seldom go, or not
at all?

When you attend worship services, are you there to praise and worship
the Lord, and hear more about Him, or do you allow your selfishness to
be in control, and cause you to focus more on the decorum of the church
and the delivery style of the speaker?

If the Lord has placed the speaker in that position, then he is following
God’s plan for his life. If his delivery is theologically accurate, but is not
pleasing to you personally, it could be that God is making you aware of
an area in your life that you have not yet surrendered to Him. You may
have developed a kind of ‘heart hardness’ that He is trying to soften.

We need to be willing to say or do whatever He wants of us,
no matter how uncomfortable we might feel. And, when we
do, we will find that He is right there with us, and our faith
will continue to grow.

When we become critical of the delivery of one of God’s called
messengers, we need to remember that a simple message can
have a powerful impact on a person’s faith and relationship
with the Lord.
Example:
    As a Sunday School teacher I spent many hours preparing to
    ‘give’ to others (and myself) what I felt the Lord wanted us to
    hear, to know, and to use in our lives as Christians. But I felt
    the need to also ‘receive’ His messages through others serving
    Him.

    We had a pastor who delivered messages which were so simple
    that I could listen while working on my lesson for the next week
    and never miss the content of his messages. As a result, I thought
    that maybe we should move our membership to another church.

    But, when I set aside my personal preferences, and considered the
    impact of his messages, I realized that many young people were
    giving their lives to the Lord. Our own son would draw messages
    about the sermon and give them to the pastor after the service.

    It was humbling for me to learn that it’s not about me and my
    preferences; it’s all about God’s messengers obeying His call to
    serve, and the impact of God speaking though His messengers,
    would have on the church body as a whole.

    Additionally, I’m sure I was getting a lot more from his sermons than
    I realized. Instead of speaking to my mind, God spoke to my heart and
    taught me how to ‘receive’ from other sources (which complemented and
    enhanced our pastor’s messages). The Lord also taught me the value of
    allowing Him to speak to me through other messengers He called to serve.

Our faith has little opportunity of growing if we don’t give it a chance by
trying the new things God expects of us. Not only will our faith grow, but
we will be blessed when we answer His call to serve (using the spiritual gift
He gave when He saved us).

When God saves us, we begin a new journey which could cause us to
leave our comfort zone (initially). However, when we commit to taking
this journey with Him, we will discover a new closeness and fellowship
with the Lord. It is a relationship with many benefits that the world can
never provide.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for Your gift of salvation.
Help me to move past an intellectual knowledge of Your
gracious gift and to allow Your love to permeate my heart.
Make me aware of any areas where my selfishness is causing
damage to my relationship with You. Teach me to surrender
my all to You, and to realize that if some things make me feel
uncomfortable, they may be a part of Your overall effort to
sanctify me more. I pray that I will be a bold, kind, witness
for you, and that I will become an active participant of the
plan You have created especially for me. Help me to overcome
all things that prevent me from allowing You to use me as You
desire.”

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