God's grace

Ephesians 2:8-9
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 

God's grace.  What dies that mean? What does the word "works"mean? 

Let's start with works. Works are the things we do. We try to keep the rules. We help people. We don't lie. We go to church. We volunteer until we don't have any more time in the day. Those are all examples of works.  None of them are bad...in fact,  aren't they good things to do?

Yes, they are.  However, as Galatians points out,  if we do them just to show God we are a good person, we are doing them for the wrong reason. God does not want us to"work" our way into salvation and heaven.  Her wants us to BELIEVE.  BELIEVE WE ARE SAVED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST! That is it! That is all we have to do! Really!

If we love God,  we will do good things out of gratitude for what He has done for us.  That is very different from doing things and hoping that will get us into heaven; this is called "works" and works will not get us into heaven. However,  if we do good things out of gratitude for what He has done for us, that is called faith, and that is all we need to get into heaven!  

Father, please help me to remember to do everything for you, not for me, but for you and you alone.  In Christ's name I pray.  Amen.