Grace versus Grease.
The grace of God versus the grease of your own toil…which is greater?
The Bible says “it’s not by might, it’s not by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord”
The Bible also says “God gives His beloved sleep/rest”
At the end of the day, God is the sort of field-owner who will give the same wages to one who has toiled from the 1st hour of the day and to the one who came in the last hour of the work-day. Why? Because He values showing His grace and receiving thanksgiving for His benevolence than “paying” the work of one who believes their hard-work is what gives them the right to be blessed or prosper.
Don’t misunderstand, God values labor. As a matter of fact, the bible not only says “he who does not provide for his family is worse than an infidel” but also states that “a little sleep, a little slumber, and poverty will overtake one” overwhelmingly.
Even God rejoices in us and His creation, the “work of his hands”. Even Jesus Christ was a carpenter…worked marvelously with his hands!” We are all to work with our hands and whatever capactities God has granted us. What must stand out however in us is the fact that we know “one plants, and another waters, but it is God who causes it to grow.”
At the end of the day, skill, education, toil, and even experience can be floored by the special grace of God on someone’s life to surpass all of those qualifications because God honors His Word even above His name and He has said how he “uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise…” so that “no one can boast.”
My personal testimony is that for years, i went to school to do what my parents and contemporaries wanted me to do: be a doctor or nurse, etc. So for a few i was a pre-med student, for a bit, a psych major, and then for a few a nursing student…and then for a few, nothing. I just quit. It seemed the toil and labor got me nowhere in particular…not where i wanted to be at least. I took pride in being an intelligent “A” student throughout most of my academic career but at the end of the day, it didn’t bless my purpose of wanting to be a worshiper in music or take me places i wanted to go proclaiming God’s name. Eventually, i got my license and could please my ego as well as those who would call that my greatest achievement.
But then came battles neither a license nor a degree could combat…trials and emotional issues, relationship betrayals, academic blunders, health problems, and family difficulties my intellect and education had never prepared me for. …But the grace of God.
“If the Lord had not been on my side…” Where would i be?
The grace of God stepped in at a point in my life where even suicide became a distant but viable option… God came in and called me Favored; Tomi Favored. When i least expected, deserved, or could have anticipated it, God’s grace picked me up and said, “now you’re broken so i can mold you.” When my lofty opinions of myself had been shattered, my confidence in man and qualifications could no longer sustain my quickly-degrading mental state, God picked me up and reminded me of His grace; to me, that grace was, and is my music.
My solitary moments of worship with my piano and yet unknown songs… The joy and peace that pervaded my very soul when i worshipped God without reservation, procedure and documentation. Without a sense of ability, but humility. THAT grace restored me. And that grace is what, unlike my years of working or gathering knowledge to boast, took me to a place where people listen to what i have to say. Through my music, they hear what i have to say about God. Through that musical grace on my life, I’ve gotten and am getting to travel places i always wanted to go but could not afford.
Through that grace of music on my life, i am blessed financially, emotionally, purposefully in ways neither my license nor academics could have blessed me. It would have taken me years to earn those priviliges. But the free gift of God has granted me those favors based on Christ’s, not my sacrifice which would never suffice to begin with because my fragile emotions and weak Will would not be able to handle the requirements necessary.
That is my own testimony. What is yours?
What are those things you’re constantly toiling to achieve without fully surrendering to God? I submit to you today that a moment of God’s grace in your life can supercede years of toil and grease on your part. “A thousand years is as a day before the Lord” and in the twinkling of an eye, God can change your story. If you give it all to Him, he can turn your mourning into dancing, give you beauty for ashes, and the peace that passes all understanding for your troubles….
I’m just sayin’ 🙂
Love you and God bless you 🙂 Thanks for reading!
