And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:47

Sometimes we fall into the trap of supposing that there is something we can do to save ourselves. If we pray enough, or attend church services, or live good lives, we can rectify the wrongs we do and earn God's approval. That's the way we may be tempted to think from time to time.

Or we may conclude that others are saved because of our activity. Perhaps God used us as the instrument to bring the Gospel to someone who believes and is saved. But we may confuse the instrument with the cause and conclude that we were the reason why another is brought to Christ.

We are reminded in Acts that it was the Lord who added to the number of believers those who were saved. Actually, only God can do that. Salvation is too gigantic a task for a human being to accomplish. Only Christ's death on the cross was sufficient for our salvation. Only He had the power to defeat death and Satan. Only He could convince us of the truth of the Gospel message and bring us to faith through His Word and Baptism.

This is God's work alone. We can only humbly accept His mercy and rejoice that He uses us to make Christ known to others.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, our Savior, make us Your instruments as through the Word You add believers to the church. Amen.

(Devotions from "The Abundant Life" copyright 1998, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time e-mailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)

Today's Bible Readings: Jeremiah 47-48    Hebrews 2

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