A Free Gift

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8,9

News leaves me cold these days. We are, all of us, inundated with information.....most of it useless. How did we get to be a society, a people, so influenced by culture and what it says. I don't care about any of it so I scan over the headlines as quickly as I can. It makes me weary, nothing changes, only the faces of the latest celebrity of the minute, the hour, the week.  

I skim past them, glancing at headlines, stopping every now and again as I shiver at the violence, destruction, loss that is now part of our normal. At what shouldn't be, but is.

I stay just long enough to know what is going on in the world. And I am reminded of one thing:

 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

But faith is one thing that never gets old. It gets renewed again and again. Increases in power, with constant use. It is stretched but never can be broken beyond repair. It stays gleaming and shiny new as that moment when we first grabbed onto it. Whether it was out of desperation or hope as slim as a spider's thread......it was real.

The other day in a book I was reading one of the characters said, "I just can't believe, I don't have that gift of faith." That is when I remembered again what a gift it really is. To believe. To have faith in what we can't see.

It is something we could never do on our own.....for even the act of believing comes from God Himself. Otherwise we could never do it. But He holds it out to us each day. And I believe, I really believe that though He will never force it on us, He holds out hope that we will accept it.

And I don't believe it is too late until we take that last breath.

Thank you Father for such a wonderful gift.