Mar 24 – Duh…! Noah’s Unused Gift & The Missing Faith Verses!!!
Eph. 2:8-10
God sometimes comes to the rescue when we shoot ourselves in the foot! Praise the Lord. This is actually the last devotion written because I made 2 mistakes: I can’t count to 40, and I left out the 3 key verses on FAITH – that I have been using to teach every confirmand since I arrived.
I had forgotten that I wrote an Easter devotion, so that gave us (all elders and myself) a total of 40 devotions. But Easter is not in Lent! So then I realized I needed one more devotion, and it will be on those 3 missing verses. Here are the first 2: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8,9 NASB)
The fact that I had forgotten this critical faith passage is a real “Duh” moment in my last Lenten devotional! I regularly tell folks these 3 verses are the summation of the Christian faith. Maybe my faux pas reveals why the confirmands over the 30 years I have been instructing them, are pretty much in the “average range” – when it comes to active or dormant faith in outcomes. Most are not active Christians today. The verses may not have been remembered by them either!
So the first part of the story of Noah involves my grandson Noah, not the dude who made the ark. Noah is now 2 years and 3 months! Time absolutely flies! Possibly, maybe probably, I traumatized the poor soul last winter when I took him sledding down our neighborhood hill. I did this to all of my children at about that same age. Last year I recall Noah fretting about the flying snow and the free fall of gravity (I think). So, this year his mom bought him a new innertube, specially designed for sledding, greatly reducing the snow spray. See – you can give children gifts. This is the point of Eph. 2:8,9. Faith is a gift – it has to be! So God gives it to young and old, divinely wrapped in His Word and Baptism.
But sadly, Noah is not fond of his new gift. It sits shiny and new in a box in his grandparents’ home. He’s a refusenik when it comes to sledding!
This brings us to Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” The earthly purpose of the gift of faith is to live as God’s children here on earth. Anything done from faith is a good work. If the gift of faith is unused, it is wasted here, and maybe wasted later! Somehow, many confirmands did not process the 3 key verses on faith. But there is hope. Possibly when a new pastor comes, they might let that new creation out and let God’s gravity of love pull them along.
The very good news is Noah may not be fond of sledding yet, but he “loves the habitation of God’s house!”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we praise You for all of Your gifts, especially faith!
May it draw us to the joy of doing good works—because we are “created in You!” Praise and Amen!!!
