Gift

Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and brings us to birth anew from God.

- Martin Luther, Preface to Romans

So keep at your work, this faith and love rooted in Christ…Guard this precious thing placed in your custody by the Holy Spirit who works in us.

- 2 Timothy 1:13-14

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From where do we receive faith?

From whom does faith come?

Faith comes to us as a work of the Spirit. Or, as the 16^thcentury Augustinian monk turned church reformer, Martin Luther asserted faith is a work of God in us. Faith is not something we find deep within ourselves or go searching for out there somewhere. Faith is a gift.

That said, I can imagine more than a few of you bristle at the notion of faith as a gift. You may be thinking to yourself, Surely there is work I must do in order to find faith? Well, since you asked. No, there is nothing you need do in order to receive the gift of faith. It’s not merited or bought, only given. God acts upon you in grace to do the work of faith in you. Faith is something that happens and is happening to you.

Why then, you may wonder, does faith seem to happen to some people and not to others?  Who knows what the Spirit is up to in someone else’s life. The mysterious work of the Spirit is on-going even when we may not be able to discern it in someone else. It is not our place to evaluate or judge someone’s depth of faith. Our attention is to be focused  on getting ourselves, our egos out of the Spirit’s way, putting ourselves in an attitude of least resistance, open to receiving the transformative work the Spirit is up to in our lives…Transformative work that has begun in us and is continuing in us.

For as Martin Luther wrote:

This life therefore is not righteousness,

but growth in righteousness,

not health, but healing,

not being, but becoming,

not rest, but exercise.

We are not yet what we shall be,

but we are growing toward it.

The process is not yet finished,

but it keeps going on.

This is not the end, but this is the road.

All does not yet gleam in the glory,

but all is being purified.

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How does the idea that faith is a gift sit with you? Does it sound like good news?  Does earning your faith or conjuring it up on your own sound like good news?

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Photo: Spirit Soaring over Colorado by Eric Murray