Pastor Herk continues, the second principle on how God helps us with our life’s work is (2) that God has given us grace to overcome our failures ... according to the gift of God's grace. The Apostle Paul was an example himself as he formerly was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent of Christ and was persecuting Christians, but by God’s grace was given by Jesus Himself, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul was not the man that we’d expect God to use in such a mighty way. Along with His exceptional ministry and church planting, 13 of the 27 books, making up 28 percent of the Bible’s New Testament, were written by the Apostle Paul.
Sometimes, we realize how much we have failed God and become paralyzed with fear or turn away. But, God’s grace is more than sufficient to overcome our past failures. When on Christ the solid rock we stand, there is value in disaster because mistakes are burned up by God’s grace and by God’s power, we start anew. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:13-14 “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” No matter how bad you were and how much you have failed God in the past, He gives you the grace, that through repentance and Gospel faith, you can try again and carry on in order to be effective in the unique ministry He has given you. Fear not!
The third principle on how God helps us with our life’s work is (3) that God has given us power to overcome our weakness. We can make all sorts of excuses for not serving God. But, God gifts and equips us to do what He calls us to accomplish. Our weakness becomes a platform for God to demonstrate His power through us. We need to know that it is the Lord God that we truly need to trust and rely on, rather than on ourselves. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore. I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. It is amazing that God uses seemly unworthy and ill-equipped people to accomplish great things for the kingdom of God and blessings on earth. The Gospel was advanced by uneducated fishermen, a tax collector and a zealot, who changed the world. God equipped them and delights in equipping us with the power to overcome our weaknesses to make an impact on our world today. Then God is the One who gets the glory! Instead of looking at our weaknesses as something that keeps us from servicing God, we need to look at them as opportunities for God to pour His power into our lives to accomplish amazing good works for the advancement of the Gospel and meeting needs. Submit your life to God and ask Him to empower you, then let Him do it.
The fourth principle on how God helps us with our life’s work is (4) that God gives us revelations so that we can search deeper to learn, know and communicate the unsearchable riches of Christ. The Greek word for “unsearchable” is ”anexichniastos”, meaning that which cannot be traced out, or which is impossible to be comprehended by the human mind; the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God. The Bible teaches both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of mankind to their Creator. Some people, knowing that the things of our infinite God cannot be fully known by our finite intellect, fatalistically reason that they might as well give up and not dig any deeper into the things of God. But God reveals to us that what we need, just at the right time. He doesn’t reveal spiritual things until we need to know and can handle them, giving a thirst to seek and know more.
Philippians 3:8-10 “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection.”
Use all the tools that you have available to you, to learn and understand all that you possibly can. Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” We receive glory by seeking the unsearchable riches of Christ, trying to understand by revelation; revealed a little at a time, so we can search even deeper into the mystery of life. As we learn, we draw closer to Jesus. So, what is your life’s work? God gifts us accomplish the godly works in our life.
In Christ, Brian
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