This post is part of series about how memorizing and meditating on these verses has influenced my life. I will share how these verses have influenced my behaviors and actions. I will also do my best to provide specific examples whenever possible. I believe this will allow God to receive the glory for the things he has done in my life. I also hope it will encourage and inspire others to live out the truths of these verses in their own lives, just as I have been encouraged by the experiences of others I have read about.
This verse helped me understand the significance of the reasons behind my actions which have drawn me closer to Christ and helped me become more like him. When I think back on many of the things I have already done in my life, I realize there is no way I could have done those things had it not been for the grace of God. My sinful nature, however would have me believe the opposite. I find it extremely easy for pride to take over and to take credit for things I could never have done in my own strength or understanding.
I think you see the same thing here in Paul’s words. When he first starts writing, he acknowledges how God’s grace has made him what he has become. In his next thought, however, he starts to talk about how hard he has worked, which is where I think you start to see his pride swell up. I believe he is quickly reminded by the Holy Spirit the only reason he could work as hard as he worked was because of God’s grace. This is where I hope to remain in my life.
When you look at the root meaning for God’s grace, the definition reads “of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”
After fully surrendering my life to God, I understood it was his grace that allowed me to decide to surrender my life to him and to enter into a relationship with him. As I continued to learn more and more about who God is, it was then I realized that his grace not only allowed me to surrender my life to him, but it was also his grace that allowed me to continue to grow in my relationship with him.
There are many different spiritual disciplines I practice in my life which I believe God has used to help draw me closer and closer to him. However, I finally realized it was not the spiritual disciplines, themselves, that allowed me to draw nearer to God. It was God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in my life that allowed me to know him more fully and to become more like him.
So, no matter where you are at in your relationship with God, I encourage you to ask God to pour more of his grace out upon your life. I believe one of the greatest things we could say in our own lives is “but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.” I believe when we can make that statement, others will take notice of our lives and God will be glorified because of it.
I would like to acknowledge that everything I have done, everything that I am, and everything I ever will be is because of God’s grace in my life. I believe God continues to pour out an abundance of his grace upon my life, which, despite my inadequacy and weakness, allows me to experience greater things in my life than I ever could have imagined. May God alone receive the glory for everything he has done!
“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.” (1 Corinthians 15:10 NIV)
