Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. The skies are clear and the sun is bright and beautiful, but it’s contrasted against the scorched brown fields so I’m working hard to focus on the beauty I see in the sky above all else today. Summer hasn’t been what it usually is around here – lush and green and hard to maintain, and unless God chooses to open up the heavens to bring the rain, we’ll slide right into the Fall season without much color at all. In the book of Job, we read: “He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them. At His direction, they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever He commands them. He brings the clouds to punish people or to water HIS EARTH and show His love.” Now THAT’S a God to revere AND to fear! The Living God has the Power to change the course of Life with just a whisper, The Great “I am” has the Power to open up the heavens…or not. When you look at it that way, only a fool with refuse to “work out Salvation with fear and trembling”. Isn’t that the way you see your Journey of Faith too?

There aren’t enough words in the English dictionary to adequately describe the Beauty of my God and there aren’t enough words known to man that can define my Gratitude for who He is and what He does for me. BUT mixed in with all the overwhelming beauty of my God is a Reverence for Him and an Acknowledgement that the God who “gives and takes away” could so easily flip my life upside down if He wanted to for Reasons of His own. So, when a “strike” seems to come out of nowhere…I pause to examine my Heart. When someone goes against me and speaks things against my character….I pause to examine my Heart. When someone believes I’ve intentionally wronged them even though they should know better…I pause to examine my Heart. When I’m accused of things that go against the very Core of who I am…I examine my Heart. When someone lashes out with insults…I pause to examine my own Heart…not theirs. I pause to examine my Heart even when I don’t fully understand the circumstances at all – not because I’m afraid of man or that I squander time worrying about what man thinks of me, but because I am working out my Faith with fear and trembling and it matters more to me how God sees me than how man perceives me. God is ALWAYS the One to balance the scales of justice so I can’t go wrong no matter what the world thinks of me IF I Focus more on what God thinks of me than anything else. This is the Key to Spiritual Maturity.

If there was a club called the “Yeah, But Club” I think most of the world would be members. These are the ones to justify bad behavior and cruel words toward someone else with a “yeah, but” as if God overlooks the offense as long as they have a good excuse. But when God changes the course with His Whisper, He doesn’t care about our excuses and the “yeah, buts” can AND WILL be held against us One Day. “Working out our Salvation with fear and trembling” means that we FIRST examine our own Hearts and we let vengeance be His if that’s what He wants, because we KNOW it’s never ours to administer. Working out our “Salvation with fear and trembling” means that we are quick to hit our knees to make sure that there is no wrong resting in our own Hearts and that we’re in Alignment with His Will. We understand that Forgiveness is a two-way street and that if we want it from God, we extend it to man. We have no control over how we’re treated or how we’re “wronged” and we’re not supposed to take it upon ourselves to inflict some sort of pain when we are. What we DO have control over is our mind which has the ability to conjure up the worst of the worst – our mouth, which has the potential to spit out venom – and our Heart which has the potential to go against our God if we aren’t careful. This is the Recipe for Peace for those who understand what it looks like to “work out our Salvation with fear and trembling.”

The sky is blue and the earth is brown but my Heart is filled with the Color of Gratitude after being tended to by the God who can flood the earth or withhold it for a Purpose. As for me, I won’t question Him and I sure won’t critique His Work. Instead, I’ll be working out my Salvation with fear and trembling all the days of my Life. I gave up my membership to the “Yeah, But Club” decades ago and I’m not going back.

How about you?