Focus

Experience silence in the midst of your busy day. Take some time to relax into a time to be with God.

Read

Ephesians 2:1-10 (NRSV)

You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Reflect

I had lunch the other day with a college student who is thinking about going into the ministry. He is relatively new to the faith, fired up for the Lord, and wanted to talk a little about life and religion.

At some point, we discussed “being saved” so I asked him, “Saved from what?” He sort of looked blank for a second, wrinkled his brow, and then offered his reply, “Nobody’s asked me that before!”

I suppose if we thought about it, we could come up with some things from which we are saved. We have faith that we’re saved from eternal death, or we could say that we are saved from sin.

Really though, Ephesians lays out exactly what we are saved from. We are saved from our fleshly desires, those things that we think would make us feel good but at the expense of others. Being saved from those things allows us to do the good works of God.

Throughout this day, you’ll have the opportunity to do the works of the flesh or the works of God. We are saved from one for the other, so may we honor that saving by doing what God calls us to do.

Pray

God of Salvation, thank you for saving us for what you would have us do. We want to do your works and not the works of the flesh. We pray that you give us strength and endurance to follow your salvation. Amen.

Go with God.