"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8)

As a Christian you have been given something the world does not have. You have been given the availability of a power that can solve all your problems and defeat any enemy that comes against you. As a Christian you have access to power that can help you accomplish the impossible — the ultimate power — the power of grace.

Before you become a Christian, you're spiritually defenseless. When the devil attacks and tempts you to sin, you don't have the ability to resist. Envy, strife, gossip, hatred, and all the works of the flesh can come in and take control. Just being a decent human being seems like a hopeless task! But after you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there is no excuse for defeat any more. You now have the ability to access grace and develop faith. With these two "power partners," you have the potential to move mountains and eliminate any obstacle that would hinder or bind you.

The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament and laid the foundation of the church for the world. He established the government of the church for us. However, he could not have done this on his own. He had to have a supernatural force helping him. That supernatural force was the power of grace: a special endowment to do that task.

We are to build on the foundation Paul laid, but we can't do it under our own power. We can only do this by using the same power Paul used. That power is grace.

We know faith is equally as important as grace. Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith." But we can't overlook the supernatural power that only comes through grace. Faith is the catalyst that activates God's Word, causing what we are believing to come to pass. We're saved by grace, but faith contains the belief and requires action that activates grace. Grace for salvation is always available for the non-Christian. God's grace is more than sufficient, but grace for salvation is only activated by faith.

As Christians, we know we are to walk by faith and not by sight. We believe God will do what He said He would do. We know it is impossible for God to lie. Titus 1:2: "In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began" and Hebrews 6:18 both say it is impossible for God to lie. "That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie …"

We know what God says is true. We can take it to the bank. We can count on it. That's what being a faith person is. We walk by faith and we live by faith. We know when God says it, it doesn't matter how things look around us. It doesn't matter if everything appears to be falling apart. If God says it will be a certain way, it will be that way. A faith person believes it has already been accomplished because God has said it. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7)

When the world hears faith spoken, they usually don't understand. They may say, "Well, it doesn't look that way." But faith says, "It doesn't matter how it looks. You can look at how it looks, but I'm going to look at what God says. You can look at the problem, but I'm going to look at the promise. I'm going to focus on the answer instead of the question. I'm going to stay focused and believe God's Word and what He said."

Faith is simply believing God is doing what He said He would do regardless of how things look, and believing it so completely that everything you say and everything you do is based on what you believe, and not what you see. That's faith.

Devotion 0118