Morning, February 26, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Salvation is of the Lord.” — Jonah 2:9

Salvation is the work of God. It is he alone who enlivens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is he also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is of the Lord.” If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have virtues, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because he upholds me with his hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation, except what God himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all my goodness, is of the Lord alone. Where I sin, that is my own; but where I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength braced my arm. Do I live a consecrated life before men? It is not I, but Christ who lives in me. Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s discipline sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly artistry. I find all that I want in God; but I find in myself nothing but sin and misery. “Only He is my rock and my salvation.” Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, with whose body and whose blood I commune? Am I continually receiving a fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help comes from heaven’s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit of itself except it abides in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in him. What Jonah learned in the great depths, let me learn this morning in my prayer closet: “Salvation is of the Lord.”