"Taking Stock"

"For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." (Psalms 116:8)

 Every once in awhile, we seriously need to remember what it is that the Lord has done for us. Not so much the material things, such as a home, and all the things we consider as blessings; but the things that matter most, the things that are part of our eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus. We have each and every one of these three things as our eternal inheritance. The first is the one that matters the most, that God has snatched us up out of the fire; whether we chose to be or not, really is not the issue, but that He chose us, that is the main thing we need to focus upon. We can feel discouraged by the way that we walk, or by the commitment we have to prayer, devotions, or sharing the Good News; but when it is all said and done, it is God that chose us to be part of His family, we did not choose Him. It is that truth that gives us joy beyond understanding; we don't understand why He chose us, but just knowing that He did gives us joy and takes away all of our tears of sadness, replacing them with tears of joy and gladness. The third thing is the one that gets me all choked up. There are so many things I do that I know do not please the Lord; things that I am sorry for doing, because the Holy Spirit has convicted my heart and made me feel ashamed for doing them. It is not that I could stop from doing everything displeasing to God, because I know that in my flesh, it is not going to happen; but that He convicts me and corrects me, those are the ways that He keeps my feet from falling. It is our faith in the finished work of Christ that keeps us from falling. I like to illustrate it by those inflatable punching toys that I had as a kid, like Bozo Bop Bag. You hit it, it falls down, but it gets right back up...

"He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign LORD will wipe away all tears. He will remove forever the insults and mockery against his land and people. The LORD has spoken! In that day the people will proclaim, "This is our God! We trusted in him, and he saved us! This is the LORD, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!"" (Isaiah 25:8-9) NLT