Sunday's gospel lesson from John contained Jesus' comment that "No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me makes them want to come."  Those are pretty powerful words about who is responsible for our faith, or even our desire to have faith!  We believe that in holy baptism we are joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ and receive His Holy Spirit who sets about "creating faith" within us.  Faith is not something we "muster up," or control, or can convince another person to have.  Faith is the work of God's Spirit within us.

 

Once we have faith, we are drawn closer to Christ in order for our faith to grow and mature.  The Spirit is constantly at work within us to transform us into the people God would have us to be.  It is an on-going process and we will never be "perfected" until we have passed from this life into the next.  It is the work of the Spirit that calls us into God's family in baptism, gathers us for worship or Bible study, helps us to see how God is at work in our lives and the lives of other people, and strengthens us to daily "walk the walk and talk the talk."  It is the Spirit at work in our lives that helps us to make "good decisions" and causes us to "repent and receive forgiveness" when we do not make such good decisions.

 

As a people who have received God's gracious gift of His very Spirit, let us pray that God would draw us closer and closer to Himself that our lives might more and more reflect our relationship with Him and be used in His service and to His glory. 

 

Peace on your journey, 

 

Pastor Carol