Where Does My Help Come From? - 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

"I always thank God for you because of His grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in Him you have been enriched in every way-- in all your speaking and in all your knowledge-- because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."

     Where does my help come from? Is it from my own strenght, my own efforts, my own abilities? Not by any means! My strenghth is in the Lord Jesus Christ, in God working in me and through me to conform me further into the image and likeness of His perfect and holy Son.

     When we come to know the Lord, when we have made Him our Lord and our Savior, we become new creatures in Christ. The old things pass away and everything becomes new. Our habits begin to change, and our speech even begins to change. No longer do we desire to fulfil the lusts of our flesh, but we now seek to grow closer to God and do that which is pleasing and honoring to Him.
     It is this change inside a person that indeed confirms that what was shared with us about Christ-- that He died for our sins, rose from the grave and now lives and is seated at the right hand of God-- is true and real. The changing of our hearts is the signature of the Holy Spirit working in us and through us, and it is a natural by-product of coming to know and love our blessed Savior.

     It is God who saves, it is God who sanctifies. Furthermore, it is God who supplies liberally all the gifts of the Holy Spirit to His children who ask. We are not left on earth powerless and weak, but we have been given the most amazing power of all, that of the Holy Spirit. God Himself, the same God who with His words created the entired universe, and with His loving hands created man in His image, is living inside of us!
     It is God then, not we, who will keep us strong until the end, helping us to patiently endure the craziness of this lost and perishing world until the day when Christ Jesus comes to take us home. It is God who will do this, and it is God who has called us into fellowship with His beloved Son Jesus. And we needn't worry or be afraid, because He is faithful. All that which God has spoken has come to pass, not one word has failed.