Precious Faith ...

Wednesday, Jan 2, 2013. What is valuable to you? What is it that you value most? It is an interesting question. We got into that questions recently, from a very practical viewpoint!

Buy a new car? …

We have a family with three kids, both parents working, both parents commuting to work in the morning. We both need to go either by car or by bike - public transport is factor 2 too slow. And our two cars are both very old … So we need to get new cars, but how much should we invest? How much can we invest?

Value is a practical thing. You have limited resources, and by making choices you put value into things. Here, we have to make a decision how much to pay for a car, how much value space and horsepower has for us. Value is concerned with the distribution of limited resources.

Thinking about our need of buying a new car, I was confronted with one of the New Testament letters, the second letter of Peter. He also talks about something precious … but it is of completely different nature than a technical device or machine.

What Peter calls precious …

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1 This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. 2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. (2 Peter 1, 1-2)

Peter talks about the “precious faith”. Faith is a gift, but it is of tremendous value. It is of unbelievable value. Peter also talks about growing in the knowledge of God and Jesus. Faith is linked to this knowledge. Faith links you to the source of life, to the eternal God.

And faith is linked to your decisions. You put your resources into faith, you take time to pray, time for bible study, time for worship service and time for other people, for the services in the church and beyond. How much do you value faith? Does this value show itself in your decisions? Value can be seen from how you distribute restricted resources …! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts