“Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway Lord for this food we’re about to eat, amen.” Those were the proud words of Charlie Anderson (Jimmy Stewart) in the movie Shenandoah shortly before he was humbled by the Civil War. It was a sad movie because of the harshness of the humbling that came his way, but his prayer was a premonition of how far he was going to fall (Proverbs 16:18).

How many of us have that attitude about our stuff and place in life? Do we think like Charlie in our private moments? Do we forget that despite working "dog-bone hard" for what we have it is all still a gift from God? When Moses recounted the forty years of Wilderness wandering he spoke frequently (20 times in Deuteronomy 1-4) about God giving them the Promised Land, but guess what was required - taking it! It was a war that required the Israelite army to go up and fight. The cooperation is best stated in one verse "And Jehovah our God delivered him up before us; and we smote him" (Deuteronomy 2:33).

Our deliverance from sin and inheritance of eternal life in Jesus is much the same. The NT makes it clear salvation is a gift but we still have to repent and obey (Acts 2:38). Peter went even further in the text urging those Jews on Pentecost to "save yourselves from this crooked generation" (Acts 2:40). We must believe and obey, just don't brag about it because salvation is still a gift.