Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 47 & 46; Joel 3:9-17; Luke 15:11-32; Romans 4:1-12
I don’t usually carry over a conversation from one day’s posting to another, but I couldn’t resist carrying over my exploration of faith from yesterday’s posting. That’s because today’s passage from Romans brings up one of my favorite theological aspects of my faith. Yesterday, as you might remember, I shared that my definition of faith is that faith is “a relational response to God”. One of my two bedrock beliefs about faith is contained in the last 3 words of that phrase: response to God. As someone who was raised United Methodist, I grew up appreciating John Wesley’s understanding of grace. Wesley talked of five different types of faith; my favorite being something he called “prevenient grace”. Prevenient grace is the grace of God’s that comes before our response to God. Without prevenient grace, we would be totally unable to respond. In essence, this is what Paul is saying when he alludes to Abraham’s circumstance. Today I invite you to look back on your own faith journey and give thanks for the ways in which God was present and working in your life even before you were fully aware of - and able to respond to - God. May those moments of awareness keep us grounded in awe and humility in all areas of our lives. Til next time…
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