Passage Read: Luke 13-14
Meditation Verses: 13:23-27
Thought
It is not enough to like Jesus and to enjoy listening to His words, that will not save a man. Jesus warns that there are many who will come to Him and be refused entry into His kingdom, though they ate and drank in His presence and heard Him teach in their streets. Being familiar with Jesus or having spent time with Him is not what saves. Hearing and acting on His teachings is what is necessary. Believing now that He is God and doing as He instructs is what saves. Delighting in Him so that we honor Him as Lord by living as He commands, that is true salvation. Jesus called people to repent, to stop living by their own wisdom and start living by His, fixing their hope fully on the kingdom to come, not the world here and now.
Application
Assurance of salvation comes not from praying a prayer at some point in my life, or from having been baptized the correct way, or fulfilling some other Church-ordained rite. It doesn't come from regular church attendance or from listening regularly to right teaching. Salvation is not so easily obtained. Jesus says to "strive to enter through the narrow door." Salvation takes effort and determination. It's not by works, but it is by a faith and belief that produces a changed life. Assurance of salvation comes from the conviction that Jesus is Lord of all creation, so I had better do as He commands. What He says is true and right, and I must embrace it as my own belief. How He says to live, I must submit myself fully to obey. I need to love Him enough to accept Him as my Lord and Savior, be devoted to learning and understanding all He teaches, and be dedicated to practicing what He preaches.