It’s Monday and I got so excited to go to work! I don’t really know why, but everything I need to do today just pumped me up. Maybe it’s the caffeine fix of the perfect cappuccino Pao made me this morning? It’s so good I never have to go outside the house to get coffee anymore! It’s so good I want to start selling cups to our neighbors!
I have this Monday first-thing-at-work agenda: to spend time seeking God for where He wants to take what and who I’m leading for the week. This week is jam-packed with lots of brainwork, ending with a New Hire Orientation on Friday. I am so grateful to God for this work, and for the people I work with!
This morning, I was brought back to one of the things my first supervisor in the ministry taught me—grace, work, grace. This phrase got stuck in my head more than the actual verse it came from, that every time I remember this phrase I have to Google the verse (does that ever happen to you?!). Now it’s time to put that verse right in front of me. Care to join me in memorizing this verse this week?
Here’s my personal take on the verse as it speaks to me today:
I have so many flaws, faults, and limitations and yet God keeps on using me. I love NLT’s version, “But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and it is not without results.” I look back and see only God’s favor throughout the years, even way back when I was younger, even before I had a better understanding of who He is and what He has done for me.
I am not to take for granted the grace and favor He has given me. In fact, it spurs me to keep working hard, to give my life into whatever He tells me to do, to give my utmost for His highest. I can’t imagine responding any other way. And He who assigned gives us the grace to work hard on His assignment, so whatever we’re faced with He will bring to finish by His grace that never runs out.
And so whether I work from the back or the front, in the local church or behind the scenes, to speak or to photocopy—I don’t mind at all. My utmost for His highest, not my utmost for my best! I embrace my place in His plans and give it my all. If at all, for at least one person to know Him anew.