Words to Grow On

May 26, 2008

Gifts of God

By

Billie Faye Harvey

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 

(Ephesians 2:8).

              Grace and Faith are two very familiar and oft-used words in the Christian vocabulary.  Sometimes they almost become clichés we use glibly, much to the confusion of new, as well as, non-unmerited favor of God – He gives us what we don’t deserve.  Faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 1:1).  Both are truly gifts which are boundless resources for our use in living victoriously.

              I experienced faith recently when I trusted a surgeon I had just met to open up chest, connect me to a heart/ lung machine, and perform two bypasses on arteries in my heart.  Furthermore, I experienced grace when I awoke to trauma, pain, and confusion and moment by moment endured and recovered.

              Peter says that our faith is more precious to God than gold.  For us to live by faith and to appropriate grace in our daily lives gives great joy to our Savior!

Lord, may your gifts of faith and grace lived out in our lives bring great pleasure to you.