Are You Experiencing True Salvation?

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."  Romans 1:16

So many times when we think of salvation, we think of being saved from Hell and going to Heaven. To us, a  person who is "saved" will go with Jesus in the rapture.  Although these ideas are definitely part of salvation, there is more to it than just that. In my recent studies, I found that the Hebrew and Greek words for salvation also imply the ideas of deliverance, forgiveness, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness of mind. I was amazed.  I realized that so many believers, including myself, have not fully tapped into the salvation experience.  We see salvation as a future experience when salvation is really a way of life in which we experience the fullness of God on a day to day basis.  It reminds of a story that I once heard where a man saved up all the money he had in order to to take his family on a three-day cruise, but he didn't have enough money to purchase food on the cruise.  The family took their own bread, crackers, and cheese to sustain them and drank water for the entire cruise. At breakfast, lunch, and dinner time,  the family would sneak back to their rooms to eat what they brought, wishing that they could partake of the luxurious and delicious foods that the cruise line had to offer. At the end of the cruise, as this man and his family were exiting the boat, the captain approached the family to see how they enjoyed the three day excursion.  The man replied that he and his family enjoyed it tremendously, however, were sorry that they didn't have enough money to partake of the meals that the cruise line offered and hoped that next time, he could bring enough money so his kids wouldn't have to eat only cheese, crackers, and water. The captain stared at him in shock as he replied,"Why sir, the meals for this three day cruise were included in the initial price." The man and his family were shocked and felt horrible as they realized that they did not get the full experience of what they paid for. The same goes for us.  Christ has paid for our salvation in full, yet many of us are not fully partaking of all the benefits that He provided.  Although deliverance is offered freely, we still hold on to our drug, sexual, and food addictions.  Although we have forgiveness, we still hold on to condemnation.  Christ has provided us with safety (for us and our families) and yet we still live in fear of danger, in fear of how we are going to make it through a trial, or how we are going to provide for ourselves and our families in a bad economic time. God provides healing, but we still hold on to past hurts and pains.  Lastly, God provides soundness of mind, yet most of us still allow the enemy to confuse us and put doubtful thoughts into our head.  It is not His will that you live below the standard that He has for you.  You are a child of the King and therefore, have access to a wealth of blessings that God has for you.  Today, take hold of your salvation and experience the fullness of it today.