Theodore Roosovelt said, "I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuos life, the life of effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink back from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph." I found this quote in a book called Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris. It's written to teenagers, telling them to grow up, to rebel against the low expectations that culture has set on them. Of course, I'm not a teenager, but I wish this book was around when I was. In fact, it's pretty convicting for me right now. Rightfully, we brag on God's grace, but we make it seem like His grace is a way of making things easier. Paul tells us in I Cor 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain, On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. You see grace isn't a way out of hard work, it's a way to work hard. We don't like words like discipline, effort, toil and labor, but these are words for the Christian. What hard things are you doing for God right now? Whether or not we love God is proved by our deeds.
Father, thank you for that amazing grace. Help it to flesh itself out in old-fashioned hard work, doing things I don't necessarily want to do, but will glorify you. Teach me to be disciplined and wholly devoted to you. Use my life for your purposes.
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