Morning, February 26
Go To Evening Reading
“Salvation is of the Lord.”
Jonah 2:9
Salvation is the work of God. It is he alone who quickens the soul
“dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is he also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He
is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is of the Lord.” If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they
are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because he
upholds me with his hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation,
except what God himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all my
goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own; but
wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I
have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life?
It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I sanctified? I did not
cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned
by God's chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The
great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly
art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing but
sin and misery. “He only is my rock and my salvation.” Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the
Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I
live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna
but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat
and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength?
Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring
forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide
in him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning
in my closet: “Salvation is of the Lord.”