Heart Tracks - Crackers And Cheese

"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32....."Our salvation includes more than pardon from sin, deliverance from hell, and a ticket to heaven. It includes all that we shall need on our journey." Vance Havner

So many professing Christians live just like the passenger on an ocean liner, who for the entire voyage across the sea, subsisted on crackers and cheese, only to learn upon arrival at his destination, that all meals were included in his fare.
In Christ, the Father has given all of His riches, extravagantly, abundantly, and freely. Yet we end up living on "crackers and cheese." And the effects of this are seen in every area of our lives. We live with a poverty and orphan mentality. We are rich in Him, but we live as spiritual paupers. Like orphans, we try to earn our way to a place at His table, when that place, and the partaking of its wonders, have already been secured for us in Christ. A spiritual feast has been prepared for us, laid out for us, but we choose instead "crackers and cheese."

That poverty/orphan mentality that so many live in is a great curse upon the church. So many of us believe we are saved by His grace, yet we live our lives out under the law. We think we have to earn what He's already given. We think prayer is all about trying to convince a reluctant God to give us something, when in reality, He already has. Jesus said that "freely you have been given, freely receive." Our great stumbling comes because we think we have to twist His arm to get something when He has already given it to us. If you doubt this, examine how often you have prayed for Him to give you more peace, joy, strength, and grace. We seem blind to the reality that He has already given us all of these in Christ. We simply have to, in faith, receive them all. His peace is ours. So is His joy and strength. Receive them.

There's an old hymn with the lyric, "What more could He do than He has already done?" On the cross. His last words were, "It is finished!" The work, the price, the victory, was accomplished, finished, at Calvary. They were all sealed with His resurrection. The riches of eternal life weren't just placed before us as some future hope, but a present reality now. In Matthew 11:28, He invites us into His rest.....now. It's an invite that calls all of ourselves to enter into all of Him. It is an invitation to abide in Him, and when we abide in Him, we partake of Him. And the riches that are His are now ours as well. In such a life, there is no place for spiritual poverty. There is no such thing as an orphan. There are only sons and daughters of the king.

How weary are we of our diet of crackers and cheese? In Christ, every longing of our heart has been met. At the cross, every price has been paid. In the resurrection, all of His bounty and abundance is given us. We can step out of our poverty, come out of our orphanage, and take up our inheritance in Him. Release the dry crackers and cheese we have believed to be our lot, and receive the heavenly manna our hearts and souls were made for. They are ours, if we'll but receive them.

Blessings,
Pastor O