Thursday, November 7, 2019

Our Efforts Or God's Grace?

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
1 Corinthians 15:10 (NKJV)

Have you ever tried to do something where after a lot of time and effort you end up with either poor results or no success at all?  Then someone tells you how to do that same thing in a different or better way that helps you accomplish your task and you wish you would have known the right way to do it to start with.  There were a couple of times I had this happen where I tried to do something myself and failed until someone helped me out.  What I tried to do through my own efforts did not work, but with the help of someone else I was successful.

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul said what he did was by the grace of God and how the grace of God towards him was not in vain.  Paul was saying that God had given him an ability, the grace, to do what he was doing.  Paul was someone who was highly educated, but he did not rely on his education.  Paul was also a tentmaker, but Paul did not rely on his occupation or his own efforts.  Paul knew how to follow God's direction in what he did and to rely on the grace of God in his life to do it.

We can use our own efforts, ideas, time, and resources to try and figure things out and accomplish what we need to do, or we can trust God to give us the wisdom and grace to do what needs to be done.  If we are only doing things through our own efforts our success will be limited at best.  But if we look to our heavenly Father to find not only His direction and wisdom but we also tap into the grace that God has for us to live our life we will have much greater success than we could have otherwise.  Don't set aside the grace of God, allow God to guide and empower you to do what needs to be done. 

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