07 January
SUCCESS THROUGH WORK AND GRACE

“Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave.”

(Proverbs 12:24, NLT)

Success may be defined as the achievement of one’s goal; or in business, as financial profitability. Real success is discovering and fulfilling God’s will for one’s life. Both the physical and tangible success in the world’s eyes and the spiritual success which may be intangible, involve hard work (in obedience to God) and the grace of God.

A good example of the result of hard work and grace is the biblical story of Simon Peter and his co-fishermen. They had toiled all night without catching any fish. Then Jesus came into the boat and they allowed Him to use it as a platform to preach the Gospel. Thereafter, at His word, which was in conflict with conventional practice among fisherman, Peter obeyed, let out the fishing net again and got an extremely huge catch (Luke 5: 1-6).

Paul, who can be described as the “most successful” of the apostles of Jesus Christ, said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10, KJV)

ACTION: God will give you your daily bread, but He expects you to go out and bake it. Commit yourself to the dignity of labour (Proverbs 6:10-11).

PRAYER: Father God, please give me the ears to hear, the heart to obey, the strength to work diligently, and your grace for success in the name of Jesus Christ.