The joy of salvation

Hey 👋🏾,

 

Saved once, saved forever?

A timeless debate that keeps on arising and wondered upon.

When we give our lives to Christ, do we have anything else to do to retain this salvation?

The answer is No, in the sense that salvation is given and all we have to do is receive. We cannot boast of getting salvation by our works and neither retain it by our works too as the Bible says in "Ephesians 2:8 NIV

[8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 

Salvation is through grace. The question now is how do we maintain the attitude and way of life salvation brings?

I'll be basing this on the parable of the Sower and the seeds.

The seeds were cast out, some didn't receive and the seeds died, some received but the cares of the world choked the joy of salvation and that also withered and died, some received but on very shallow level, James says "...like one who looks into the mirror, turns away and forget what they saw..."

(James 1:23- 24 NIV

[23] Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror

[24] and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. )

The plant from the seed dried up quickly as their belief was too shallow and not firm in their hearts and they didn't have root.

Then there are those in whom the seeds fell in good soil and it sprouted and gave a harvest of 30 or 60 or 100 times.

So we can receive salvation and still lose it by sin and neglect to proper care of the word in us.

Problems, sin, shame, guilt and others can take away the joy of our salvation, it can take away the meaning but are we really going to sit back and let it do that?

To hold unto the joy of your salvation is to hold unto God . I've come to understand that Joy doesn't necessarily mean an outburst of happiness in good situations, it means that even in the bad situations I'm still thankful. Just saying, thank You Jesus even when I don't feel like it.

Don't let the devil lie to you that you are alone, Jesus is with you always even till the end of time. Water your seed , ask God to till your heart.

I want us to look at it like this, the ground is our heart and God is the Farmer. We can't till our own heart, it's the farmer that does that. That's why we pray for understanding, we pray for strength and we pray for wisdom. Let God work on your heart.

Water your ground with Gods words. Listen to Godly podcasts even if it's one in a week, sermons, read your Bible, have your quiet time and let that seed grow 🤍.

May God help us from time to time in Jesus's name 💕 

Shalom.

Your accountability partner, Gloria 🤍🌸💜