07/16/2024
This morning let’s concentrate on the subject of doing the work of God. As we do so we find that no matter what form His work takes, it should always be founded in the giving and receiving of grace. The tap root of Godly work is grace, but often we confuse this with gifts. If we focus on grace... the gifts will come.
Pastor E.M. Bounds spoke specifically to pastors in my devotional reading this morning when he said:
"It may be stressed that no result, a low experience, and pointless, powerless preaching always flows from a lack of grace. And a lack of grace flows from a lack of praying." – E.M. Bounds
Yet, as powerful as these words are for pastors, the work of God isn't reserved solely for preachers alone. God calls each of us to serve him in some way. Usually it involves the gifts that the Lord has blessed us with. Whatever our gifts are, (writing, speaking, preaching, giving, encouragement...) let’s pray that the Lord will show us how to incorporate our gifts into doing His work, and bestowing His grace on others.
“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
2 Timothy 2:21 ESV
Perhaps as we pray, God will ask us to do something outside our comfort zone; something that we don't feel we are gifted to do. But, that is rare; usually God is revealing to us a gift that we already have but didn't realize we had received. I know a pastor that is wonderful behind the pulpit and when teaching, but he would readily tell you that he isn't equipped for hospital visitation and comforting. He has to coax himself to the bedside of those in need of comforting or healing prayer. However, I know this to be a gift that he just hasn't been made aware of yet. While behind the pulpit he feels more or less in charge of what he is doing, but at the bedside he must trust solely in God... this takes courage, it takes grace, and it takes much prayer.
The interesting aside of this story is that when this pastor learned to pray and trust God at the bedsides of his sick and dying congregants, and in the homes of those who were suffering, his ability to preach and teach was also improved by heaping measure, and his work for the kingdom started reaping great rewards for the glory of God. He came to realize that it wasn't his hard work, but rather the Grace of God that was imparted through him, that mattered most.
This is true in the work each of us does for the kingdom... It isn't what we do, but rather through the grace that God imparts in us and through us that we are effective. E.M. Bounds wrote of what it takes to gain such strength in the grace of God. He said it in this simple statement:
"Great grace comes from great praying."
Our prayers are of paramount importance as we seek to do God's work. This morning let's pray for that grand inoculation of grace. Let's ask God to give us more grace than we could possibly use ourselves so that it will overflow into those around us. Let's ask that He challenge us and show us how He will use our efforts for His glory. Let's ask him for the courage it takes to step into new works that we never thought were possible for us, and that His presence will give us the strength to achieve what He would have us do.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV
Are we prepared to pray as we ought, and have grace be the product of the time spent on our knees?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the many gifts you bestow upon us, but thank you most for the grace we receive and learn to share with others. Thank you Lord for transforming us in Christ to do good works so that we aren’t able to boast in ourselves, but in Jesus alone. Open our eyes so that we can see that it is only by your abundant grace that flows through Him that we were given the faith that has saved us. Help us Holy Father to also receive a full helping of your grace such that it is not only sufficient to redeem us, but that we can share its abundance with others as we lead them to your Son, Christ Jesus. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who showers us endlessly with mercy and grace, and gives us gifts of the spirit to employ as we do your will. Holy are you who we glorify with every soul to whom we deliver the gospel of Jesus. And, as we are transformed and are made to be more perfect in His image, let grace be the heart of all we do, and the fullness of every gift we exercise on your behalf. Let nothing we say or do be done outside of a spirit of love, and grace. This is our prayer today, and our great desire as we kneel before you. This we know to be a mighty gift to us that helps us to love our neighbors as ourselves… even as you love and forgive us. Help us Holy Spirit to make Love and grace the underpinning of every prayer we pray, and be the aroma and essence of all that we have become in Christ… the foundation of forgiveness of others, and the heart of all mercy we show.
Amen!
“(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”
John 1:15-18 ESV
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Titus 3:4-7 ESV
Rich Forbes