When God has gives us His vision, He supplies us with the grace to fully accomplish His plan and then sustain it.
James 4:6 says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (NKJV). When we humbly receive God’s desire and pursue His plan with all our hearts, He will provide the grace and ability to see it through. Meanwhile, our only desire is that Jesus receives the glory for all He accomplished through us.
The proud think more of their accomplishments than of God’s. They will point more to themselves than to Jesus. They will give people their opinions rather than God’s Word.
The proud can never grow, yet they are unaware of their immaturity. They distance themselves from those who can speak into their lives because they cannot admit that they need anyone. Unapproachable and unteachable, they listen only to those who agree with them. Their own accomplishments are their evidence of success. They must prove they are great so that people can marvel.
Anyone with the slightest discernment can see the pride in these individuals. It comes through in their words, their decisions, and their actions. Many times God will send His appointed ministers to help open the eyes of the proud. He will stir His Word within them to free them from the limits of their own ambition and strength. But if they are not willing to humble themselves to receive this ministry, all help will be ignored or refused.
God’s grace comes to the humble, to those who will exalt His Word, His will, and His ways. His grace comes to those whose real heart is to do His will, regardless of applause.
Success to such people is in reaching out to do what God desires. They know unquestionably that they cannot complete their task by themselves; they must receive the grace to do the work for Him. They must walk close to Him and have His words as their food.
The Apostle Paul clearly shows his reliance on this divine grace. Notice what he says in First Corinthians 15:10: “But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me – and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace” (NLT).
Paul was confident in the grace within him. Yet he pointed to the grace of God as his strength and to his own labor as the fruit of God’s gift to him. We must become like the Apostle Paul, knowing that without the grace of God we are unable to do anything successfully for the kingdom of God.
We can yield to the grace of God and allow Him to direct our achievements. We begin our walk with God by grace, finish it by grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8 NKJV).
