No boasting

 Stop boasting, you didn't SAVE yourself!

There is so much talk about doing things for ourselves. Stand up for yourself, take care of yourself, do it yourself, take pride in yourself  and all these are supposed to be good things, great things in fact. Being independent and in need of no one is a great thing, right?  Even Paul said he took care of his own needs-

2Th 3:8  Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you

Act 20:33  I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel.

Act 20:34  Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.

So it is a good thing to do for yourself and if possible for others, no one should say it isn't a good thing.   What I am saying is we cannot get so caught up in doing for ourselves that we start boasting of our ability to save ourselves.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

First of all our very existence is by God's design.  We can take no credit for our existence. If you say you can because you choose not to end your existence, I'll say you have the existence to choose to end or not because of God and God alone gave you that existence.   When we choose to be saved, to recognize we need saving we choose to be saved through faith in Christ Jesus' ability to save us. We do not ever choose to save ourselves, we choose to be saved by another. We recognize that we CANNOT, absolutely CANNOT save ourselves. 

After we choose salvation by Christ Jesus our Lord, we are entering a way of life that means CONSTANT choosing to be saved by Jesus.  Jesus taught us to pray a DAILY prayer for DAILY sustenance, for God's will DAILY.  Daily we choose to surrender our will to God, to have faith that Jesus will indeed save us through HIS GRACE.  As we go about our daily living we recognize all that we do is in His workmanship.  We are required to live as He would have us live, in the good works that He Himself lived in. He was our example, His earthly life was our example, and He spent His life serving God and serving others in all things.  Yes, He made sure to eat, to tend to His own needs as necessary but He also gave of himself sacrificing His time, His energy, and ultimately He sacrificed His life for us.

We have hope in Jesus, not in ourselves, not in our own good works.  If we are blessed to be able to do any good works in Jesus Christ, all glory goes to Him for making it possible for us to do those good works.  If I am able to do a good work for someone, it is only because my Creator, my Savior made it possible for me to do that good work.

This doesn't mean Satan won't use our doing good works to trap us because He will. He's subtle and he'll do all in his power to get us caught up in doing good works so that we may boast of those good works, as if we on our own are responsible for the good works.  One of Satan's tricks is making us feel unappreciated, making us feel taken advantage of. Another trick is making us feel excessive happiness in working good, which can lead us to self adoration, boasting in our self. We don't do good to be happy, to feel good. We CHOOSE to do good because it is the right thing to do, the thing our Savior would have us do.  Our life is a life made up of choices, constant choices. We must use our Savior as our guide as we make each choice. By HIS GRACE and HIS GRACE alone may we make the choices we need to make to be His, fully, wholly, surrendered to Him, the author of Salvation.

In His name, always!

Amen.