Putting Vision into Practice: "The attitude of God’s empowering grace."
I Corinthians 16:13-14 “Be on guard, stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love.”
In the midst of Paul’s farewell comments to the Corinthians he writes these couple versus of empowerment. Paul gives them a picture of what it looks like to live out their faith. They are to be people who are on guard and standing firm in the faith. What does it mean to be on guard? How do we stand firm in the faith? Paul urges them to be courageous and strong…to do everything with love. What does this look like? What does it mean to be courageous and strong? How does this courage and strength look differently from the worlds courage and strength? How does love undergird everything else? What is it about love that brings forth this standing firm and acting with courage in a different way from the world?
I can’t help but read this verse and just feel this sense of empowerment that these are the attitudes I should have in living out God’s vision for my life. It’s the idea that God’s vision for my life will require me to stand firm, to be courageous, and to do this from an attitude of love. So often I see the world’s version of strength and courage and standing firm and this undergirding of love seems to always be missing. Perhaps this is the call from which we are to live out God’s vision upon our lives. Once we have the vision we have to put it into practice and God’s vision will always cause us to stand firm, to be courageous, to practice faith, to be strong, and all of this must be done through the attitude of love. This is a total act of Grace, through God’s grace we are able to live this way and when we do this our two dimensional vision fantasy becomes a three dimensional vision reality.
Lord, I pray for you to do a work of grace in my life today that will empower me to live out your vision for my life with a passion that resembles these versus. Give me the grace to stand firm, to be on guard, to act with courage and strength and may all of these qualities flow through an attitude of love. Give me this grace of passion today and give me opportunities to live into your vision for my life. I pray for your continued guidance and revelation; I trust in your direction and thank you for inviting me into this life. Amen.
God empowers me to live into His vision for my life through His empowering grace.
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