April 9th - Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8-9 I remember my first pay packet as a teenager. It was a small brown envelope and it contained what, at the time, seemed to me like a considerable amount of money. It wasn’t really very much but I had never had a job before, and it compared favourably with pocket money! I had received that money because I had done many days of hard physical work in a warehouse. And it may well be that you can see a clear connection between all that you own and the hard work that you have put in. For this very reason it can be very difficult to accept that our salvation is completely unlike this. Because however hard we work, and however nice we are, we will never be able to earn salvation. The problem is that we are all sinners. We have all fallen short of God’s standards. The fact that some people seem to be much worse than others is neither here nor there. No amount of hard work will earn us salvation. All we can do is to accept the gift of God, which Paul describes as grace. Grace is the totally undeserved gift of new life, which God gives to those who are willing to receive it. And because it is entirely the result of God’s generosity, and nothing to do with our good actions, we never have any reason to boast about what we have done. All we can do is accept the gift, give thanks to God and then boast about how brilliant he is. Question In what ways are you able to boast of what God has done in your life? Prayer Loving Father, thank you for the amazing generosity that you have shown me. Help me today to find opportunities to boast about what you have done for me. Amen