Daily Devotional for July 7, 2022

We live in the world of an instant fix.
 
Want to get in shape and lose weight?  Do this tummy crunch, take this pill, and join this gym.  The weight will fall off.
 
Want a faster computer?  Time to upgrade to the latest, greatest, high-speed chip.
 
Want to learn a foreign language?  Buy this software program and in one week, you will have mastered an entire language.
 
Any of this sound familiar?  We are continually bombarded with a quick fix for every aspect of life.  But it doesn’t work that way with faith because it is a never-ending process of continuing to grow closer and closer to the God of Creation.  It’s a process.
 
This is how Macrina Wiederkehr puts it:
 
“One of the great lies of our day is that conversion is instant, like fast food.  God can zap us and we’re saved.  It is all free.  It costs nothing.  Take it and run.  This is what Bonhoeffer calls “cheap grace.”  Punch in at church.  Grab a sacrament and run.  Season your conversation with “praise the Lord” and you’re among the saved.
 
One of the great truths of our day is that conversion is ongoing.  Conversion is the process in which we are given opportunity upon opportunity to accept the free gift of salvation.  Salvation is a free gift, yes but it’s costly. It’s “costly grace.”  It costs us our lives lived passionately.  The road to conversion is not a fast-food line.  When Saul was knocked down by that flash of lightning, that was not conversion.  That was just God getting his attention.  The conversion came as he groped his way to blindness to Ananias, able to see with interior eyes because he had no external eyes to depend on.  His conversion continued day after day as he began to give meaning to his new name, Paul.  He was still in the process of conversion when he was on his way to Rome in chains.”  
From A Tree Full of Angels by Macrina Wiederkehr
 
Faith development doesn’t happen in an instant.  The goal is to continue to move closer to God each day.  If we do that, we are on the right track.
 
Peter said, “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:5-8)
 
Work to move in the right direction.  That’s all God wants.
 
Prayer:  Dear Gracious Heavenly God, please hold my hand as I walk through life.  Draw me closer to you.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.
 
There’s no such thing as a quick fix for faith.  It’s slow and worth every second.
 
I pray your day is filled with joy and laughter.
Tom Robbins