Day 326 Ephesians 1:1–2:22

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God



Another blinding flash of the obvious. The whole notion of being saved through faith, I found confusing. It seemed like the “build it and they will come” concept from Field of Dreams. I am saved because I have faith? But to read Paul’s concept, by grace we are saved through faith, this resonates.

To think that it’s up to me to have faith is the part that’s hard to wrap my head around. I start so many things that I never finish, ‘enthusiasms’ a mentor once called them. I want to do art through Lent so I purchase the supplies. I do some art during some of Lent, and the supplies are still in my desk drawer. This is only one example of the many things I start with great intentions and fall away. If my saving is dependent on my consistent faith, I’m in trouble. Perfect consistency is not something I have. Few of us do, I suspect.

By grace, I have faith. Aaah! Now I understand. It’s God’s grace that gives me faith, not my persistence, or adherence to a schedule, or ordination or anything. It’s God’s grace alone. What a mystery that is!

So my whole salvation or saving is dependent on a gift from God that I cannot earn or guarantee. It’s God’s grace that gives me faith, and sustains that faith when common sense would have me running the other way.

I am entirely dependent on an invisible, illogical, indefinable gift from God. That is quite humbling, and puts me in my place – a place of utter humility before God. This morning, I’m thinking about that gift of grace, which sustains my faith. I’m grateful it exists and entirely perplexed about how it all works.