I was privileged to serve with a senior leader while on campus. This man of God shaped my understanding of grace. After a rather long day of meetings and ministry engagements running into late night, he would pick up his books to go read in class, sometimes, staggering along the way. He would still push for about 2-3 hours with intense study. He ended up graduating as the overall best student. I tagged along with him that year, and it taught me to maximize grace.
Friend, grace must be maximized if it would benefit you. Whereas we appropriate grace through faith, grace is maximzed through labour (1 Corinthians 15:10, Ephesians 2:8). Perhaps the most abused word in the kingdom is grace. You hear people say things like; “By God’s grace, I’d pass my exams. I’m trusting God for grace to succeed in my marriage, business, ministry, etc.”
While the above statements are very valid and scriptural, many people do not know the implications of those statements. A lot of people only know grace as unmerited favour; very few know grace as a divine soft loan given to a man to profit with (Luke 19:13). Simply put, grace has been given to labour. Grace is a partnership between divinity and humanity (Luke 5:4). It is working with the abilities that God supplies (1 Peter 4:10-11).
Grace is never an excuse from labour. Rather, it is an empowerment to labour (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). When God’s grace comes upon your life, you would labour. You will work more than others. Grace will make you go the extramile in your career, business, ministry, etc. (Matthew 25:1-4). Graceful people are not loafers. They are diligent people.
Whereas God supplies the calling, you will need to supply the diligence if the calling would work (2 Peter 1:10). What you become in life is not entirely the responsibility of God. It is mostly your responsibility. In Christ, God has done His part, but you need to do your part. Redemption is not a licence for laziness. It is to help you labour correctly under the flow of God’s blessing (Psalms 127:1-2, Luke 5:1-7).
You need to maximize Grace. Stop making excuses for failure or underperformance (Proverbs 22:13, John 5:7-8). Stop accusing the devil of bringing failures and defeats in your life. Stop seeing God as unfaithful. Start labouring with grace. Start going the extramile. Start giving your best to life and your endeavours by leveraging grace. When God’s blessing meets with laziness in your life, it would still amount to nothing.
‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria