It's easy to accept just the blessings you like, but that's not the way it works.
Read / Listen
Read Luke 8:22-25
Listen to passage & devotional:
Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 20
Q. Are all saved through Christ
just as all were lost through Adam?
A. No.
Only those are saved
who by true faith
are grafted into Christ
and accept all his blessings.
Summary
In this text from Luke we hear Jesus requesting to go to the other side of the lake. The text says the other side, because that was the side of the Gentiles. That was the side that the Jews didn’t go. Standing on the shores of life we can either appreciate the waves that God brings as beautiful or breaking. Yet it is never the water that changes.
This was certainly the case with the disciples in the gospel of Luke. They had been on the sea of Galilee all of their life. They knew this water. It had been their source of livelihood for generations. Yet, when Jesus requested to go to the other side, They knew they were going to the edge of their comfort zone... Because decent Jews didn’t go to the other side.
The other side was the gentile side. It was unclean. It was uncouth. To go there was to invite judgment on yourself. At least that is what they had been told. And sure enough as they crossed out of familiar waters and got close to the other side, it seemed that God’s judgment was coming on them. As the waves began to rise and enter their boat these seasoned sailors thought they were going down.
Stumbling to reach Jesus in the stern of the boat they woke him and said, “Master, Master, we are going to drown!" Jesus stood up, rebuked the wind and the raging waves and the storm subsided. Where is your faith? He asked his disciples.
Jesus asks you this same question: Where is your faith?
Is it in your blood from Adam that brought the curse of sin, or is it in the Son of God who brings you life? If your faith is in Christ then blessing will abound in your life; but some blessings will seem better than others.
Dig Deeper
In our teaching lesson from the Catechism we see the word all repeated three times. “Are all saved”, “are all lost” and “grafted into Christ we accept all his blessings.” We like to speak using all because we want to be inclusive. We want all to go to heaven, so we say... except maybe the most wicked tyrant or ungodly neighbor.
So if we want to carve out some, it's not so difficult to see why God would want to select as well; to chose or carve out his chosen from the the unrepentant. It quickly becomes clear that it's not feasible to have all in heaven.
What is the deciding factor then? It certainly can’t just be a particular people or language. It has to be something outside of who you are.
As the Catechism says, salvation comes from being grafted into Christ, who reveals that you are chosen and who feeds you with his Word and Spirit so that you would accept and live in His blessings.
Even when those blessings bring about unexpected struggle.
What blessing from God do you struggle to accept the most? Silence? Reflection?
Wealth?
Often the blessing that you struggle the most to accept is the very blessing that God giving you the most often.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Triune God, who commands the winds and the water, and they obey Him.
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Open my heart and hands by your Holy Spirit to accept your gifts, as the seashore accepts the waves.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Acts 15
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