1 CORINTHIANS 15:10

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

TO PONDER

Do you ever feel disappointed that no matter how hard you work at something, you don't feel or seem to make any progress? I used to feel like that while learning the piano as a young boy. Certainly, I learned quickly in the beginning; it's not hard to know more than you did before when your starting point is zero knowledge at all. but as I learned to read the music, and play the notes my progress slowed down. It became necessary for me to put in much longer hours in order to make increasingly small improvements.

Needless to say, as the effort to reward ratio reduced, my commitment to practice waned and before long I had basically given up. Today I can still read music but my ability to platy the piano with much skill has all but disappeared.

Sometimes our life as disciples of Jesus can be similar. When we first come to faith in Jesus, we can often be excited and energised by the difference that faith makes in our lives and in our outlook. Sometimes, as time moves on, we can find that level of excitement can begin to wane. We can convince ourselves that maybe if we put in more work, try a bit harder to "live like a good Christian", then we might recapture some of the joy that we first experienced when we came to faith.

The reality of the situation is that this kind of thinking undermines the truth of the gospel. It is God's grace that, over time, transforms us as his people into the likeness of Christ, not any effort on our part. It's when we remember this and stop striving to impress God and simply allow his Spirit to work within us, that we recapture the joy of being his people.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, Thank you that in the cross of your Son Jesus, that you have done everything necessary for us to enjoy a relationship with you. Help me to understand this truth more deeply each day. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle