God Does It All

All we must do is come to God and ask for help. God will do the rest. Psalm 51 makes this crystal clear in bullet point fashion.

From Psalm 51:

1) Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2) Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

7) Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8) Make me to hear joy and gladness….

9) Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10) Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11) Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12) Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

14) Deliver me from bloodguiltiness…….

15) O Lord, open thou my lips….

There is no sacrifice, no deed, no effort required from us other than, “a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17). Every aspect of salvation is a gift from God. From when the notion first entered our mind, that was from God. Seeing the sin in our life, that was from God. Picking up a Bible, attending Church, that was from God. The will to do and to be a Christian, that was from God. Even the broken spirit and the contrite heart, even these things are a gift from God.

Listen to the cries of Ephraim to God. He understood that it is all by the hand of God and not of our self. "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God.  Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth." (Jeremiah 31:18-19)

The Apostle Paul put it this way. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

When God has finished His work of salvation on us, “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” (Psalm 51:13).

Surrender and be saved.

Bill Hitchcock