Grace: Effort and Earning

"Grace is not opposed to effort but it is opposed to earning." I heard this recently in a talk on Galatians 4. A very regular featured discussion within my own thoughts has been how to balance striving and being passionate for God. I have come to realise that the answer is not a balance but whether you are free or not from a religious mindset and if you have embraced the message of grace. If you are caught in the middle you are simply not fully free and need to press in for that freedom. As I write this I am so amazed at how much God has freed me from all legalistic tendencies that I cannot even enter into the mindset I used to have to blog about it! I can't recall what it was like to feel I have to do something in order to be acceptable to God. I know that I know that I know that he loves me just the way I am.

So if grace is not opposed to effort then that means that the other extreme of "oh I am not going to spend time with God coz its all about grace" is also a lesser form of living than God wants for us. I believe we cannot have the mindset that God will spoon feed us or drop everything into our plates because he is "graceful." That is not grace in my view. Jesus came and lived like us to show us what grace can achieve in us if we partner with the Holy Spirit and let God channel through us all of heaven. This requires a transformation of the mind and a dedication and passion to seeking God, being intentional about being alligned with heaven and occupying and receiving all that is legally ours because of the cross. There is no SHORTCUT to this except effort, prayer, stepping out in faith, failing, study and all the other glorious spiritual disciplines. This MUST NOT be confused with striving to earn God's affections.

We must also acknowledge that there is such a warfare against us in this journey. The enemy does not want us to pursue all this. In fact I believe the enemy has probably given us this false view of grace that means we don't pursue God, or put any energy in and as a result we see not near enough kingdom activity as we could do.

How about grace with each other? For me at the moment this is the battle ground. God is pruning the socks off me at the moment in relation to accepting the grace others want to give me and also realising I can't earn the affections of others - well I can but it is a tiring and ungodly way to live. I am letting go.

I have the lovely Sarah Bailey staying at the moment. She is hanging out with Form and soaking up the atmosphere at Philly.