Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. Holy Martyr Nestor (305). Holy Martyr Capitolina and Her Slave Erotheides.
Ephesians 2:4-10. Luke 8:26-39.
Read Ephesians 2:4-10
They say, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Sure, if we were buying a horse, one of the things we would do is check its teeth. But, if someone was giving us a horse, would we risk offending the giver and having the gift withdrawn by checking? We can sometimes have doubts about the value of what we are being given and thereby miss out on the gift. Today’s epistle reading reassures us of the value of what God gives us in Christ Jesus so that we don’t miss out. Then it shows us how to receive God’s gift.
It is important to notice that we are not saved by faith, in the sense of faith being another one of our works that we might boast about. We are saved “by grace…through faith” – important distinction. Even faith and the opportunity to exercise it is a gift of God.
So, what do we do if we find, to our regret, that we have missed out on opportunities to exercise faith? That becomes our opportunity! Repent, confess, and prayerfully look “for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
What if we experience that we don’t have faith but wish we did? Even that wishing is a gift – what a blessing to be given such a desire! Instead of despairing, Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
Do we want the gift of faith? Pray for it, look for what God has prepared beforehand for us to do, and walk in those good works.