We are blessed to read the words of Xavier Moran today as he reflects on his experience of the Cross and Easter. Thanks again Xavier. If you are keen to read a little more about Xavier's journey please visit his personal web-page. It is well worth your time.
“…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12b-13).
If you cast your eye across a wall filled with photographic
snapshots of my spiritual journey you would come across an Autumn scene of seventeen-year-old
me kneeling on a hillside committing my life to Jesus. At the time, I was
attending the annual Youth Easter Camp led by a combined team from the
Methodist Circuit in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. Because of this moment,
Easter assumed the role of a spiritual ‘gauge’ of sorts, whereby I consider
each year how I’m doing with the ‘working out of my salvation’.
In the early years I was often given to guilt when
reflecting on the cross, feeling that I wasn’t doing enough for Jesus. Although
I knew I was saved by grace, I measured my life by works and it gave my walk
with Jesus an Achilles heel of condemnation.
In more recent years I have come to understand that ‘the
work’ I need to do is simply to remember that I will always be that
seventeen-year-old on the hillside. That even though I may grow in knowledge
and experience, it’s always ‘God who works in me to will and to act.’ That
my first work is to accept that I’ve nothing to offer and then to find my peace
in the knowledge that what is given through me is from Him and will be made
complete by Him, ‘in order to fulfil his good purpose.’
Lord Jesus, help us to accept your work on the cross and
to receive the power of your Holy Spirit as we live out the resurrected life
for the advancement of your Kingdom.
Living in Grace
D3LM3
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