Valuing Your Salvation

Until your walk with God becomes your own you won’t appreciate it. A couple of weeks ago Misty and I attended a wedding for a close friend of ours in Michigan. During the reception I was talking with another one of my friends that has recently rededicated his life. The one thing that he said to me struck me so hard was “Until your walk with God becomes your own you won’t appreciate it.”
I could have jumped out of my skin sitting at the table with him. It answers so many questions that I have/had in regards to why some of my friends and even some youth that I used to minister to aren’t walking with God right now. Their walk with God wasn’t their own.

Paul admonishes us to “…work out OUR OWN salvation with fear and trembling.” Your salvation isn’t based on what you “feel” it’s based on what you know. If you are riding the coat tails of your parents or even your pastor’s walk with God then it won’t truly be yours. I was the same way until the summer of 1998 when I went on a short-term missions trip and I saw countless miracles and I had no argument that God doesn’t perform miracles today. It was on that trip that my walk with God became my own. Until you really experience things for yourself you will never value or appreciate certain things.

While I’m on the subject of “feeling” I won’t to stop and encourage you in something.
If you don’t feel God, and you are living a life above reproach, then God is closer to you then He was before. Because when you “feel” Him you are relying on your soul to tell you that God is near. When you don’t feel Him you are relying on your spirit and that makes Him closer to you then you even realize.

For instance; I never fully understood the love of Jesus until I became a father myself. I now know why Jesus chose to come and assure our salvation by dying on the cross so we can spend an eternity with Him. Until you really know and appreciate who Jesus is and what He can do your walk with Him won’t really be your own and the first sign of trouble or questioning your faith will begin to waver.
Take the opportunity over the next couple of days and give yourself a “spiritual gut check” and find out if your walk with God is your own.