How do you know if you are not making God’s grace in vain?

Many Christians today speak very little of grace or speak only in general. They do not know that beyond the grace of salvation, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the desire for service are also undeserved gifts from the Lord. It seems that a very limited understanding of grace often prevents us from experiencing God’s grace in our lives.

By the grace of God we are what we are

In Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul, being very indignant that some of the Corinthians questioned the resurrection of the dead, begins with the way he presented the gospel. After saying that the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected and appeared to many after the resurrection, the apostle Paul says:

and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. (1 Corinthians 15:8-10 NASB)

So this man shows us that by the grace of God he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, even though at first he was in a state of wandering. Moreover, he says that by grace he received this calling of apostle and the power to work. In fact, the way we do our work as servants of God, as Christians, shows how we allow this grace to be manifested in our lives. The apostle Paul tells us that this grace was not in vain for him, because he worked harder than all others.

I look around and see so many disciples for whom the grace of Jesus Christ is in vain, because it is not manifested. People come to church on Sundays, but they don’t do anything else. Years pass and they do not tell the gospel to anyone, they do not make disciples, they do not make themselves available to the Lord to be used. Looking at them, I wonder if the grace of God that has been given to us is not in vain for them.

We are an instrument of God’s grace

The grace that God has prepared and wants to be manifested through us as an instrument never comes to be manifested, because we do not allow it. Few let the grace of God flow into their lives.

I pray that God will make me an instrument of His grace, which will be seen in the work I do. Every time I try to do something by my own strength I will not succeed, because it is not by the grace of the Lord. I hear many servants say that “they burned up on the altar,” but there is no such thing for a man who is an instrument of grace, because God’s grace is unlimited. When God finds a man who is ready to make himself fully available to Him, He will pour out grace through this man, and grace will be seen through his work. The work that a man full of grace does is not a work without results. We see people who work hard, they are exhausted, but they do not bear fruit. Only when this work springs from the grace of God does it bear fruit that remains for eternal life.

May God help each of us to be instruments of God’s grace and may His grace not be in vain to any of us.

Translated by Didina Vicliuc