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For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 2:8–9, ESV

It is by grace we are saved. What is grace? A gift of God that covers past sins. How do we receive grace? Through faith. What is faith? A gift of God that gives us the ability to believe and know God. As people, we neither obtain grace nor do we receive faith by anything other than receiving them both as a gift from a God who chooses to pour it out for us and reveal it. It is through the Holy Spirit of the Lord that we are given the ability to proclaim Christ as our Lord and King. Why? So, we may only boast in our Lord, but not in ourselves. We have no reason to become puffed up in faith, but we are saved in humility by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us all on the Cross. This gift is what we proclaim, and in it we have all of our hope. We don’t decide to follow Jesus; we merely submit to His authority and humble ourselves to Him. As we are repented by our Lord, we are renewed in our spirits when we turn away from the sins revealed to us and flee to the comfort of our Lord and enter into His peace.tyrt

Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.