Grace to Be and Grace to Do • Deshen Daily

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Cor. 15:10 NET).

Grace operates in our lives in two broad dimensions. It makes you become (being) and able to do (living). The Apostle makes the amazing statement above that “by the grace of God I am what I am.” He recognized that grace had made him become what he was not before. In Paul’s specific case, he had become an Apostle, entrusted with the mysteries of grace. He was referring to his ministry grace, but we have all received and become by the grace of God. Grace has made sinners become saints. It gives them a status they did not have before. This is a hard pill for many believers to swallow—to understand that the day they were born again, they became saints, righteous and holy, and left their sins in the past. The reason they struggle with this is that they have not learned to take their eyes off themselves and look at the Word.

Besides giving you a “being” in Christ, grace empowers you to do. Paul says, “Toward this goal I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully works in me” (Col. 1:29 NET). God’s power was working powerfully in him. That was grace at work. God wants you to open up to both dimensions of grace. Be bold and confident by faith in what He says you have become in Christ and that will unleash the power to do. Many believers burn out trying to do without divine empowerment by believing in the word. You will not be able to do or see any manifestation of what you have not believed in the Word. Believe all that Grace has said about you and then you will see!

MEDITATE

Can you list two things that you have become in Christ by grace? See John 1:14, 1 For. 1:30, 2 Cor. 5:21.

APPLY THE WORD

The blessing of God is released by the doing of His Word. Whenever you read the Word, look for an opportunity to start practicing it: that is what will change your life. One thing you can do now is to change the way you see yourself—take up God’s view of you!