Good morning to you, saint. It’s Friday again, a day of prayer and fasting. I encourage you to be faithful to these times of prayer and fasting and see what the Lord does in your life. Today I want us to look at the favour and hard work.
1 Corinthians 15:9-10 (NLTSE) [9] For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God's church. [10] But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favour 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.
Apostle Paul admits he was not worthy even to be called an apostle BUT God showed him his favour and made him one of the greatest apostles of all time. Why did God choose to use a man who persecuted the church?. Were there no better people to use? Were there no more prayerful and more committed people at the time? There were obviously more deserving people to be used by God, but that’s what grace does. Through grace, God takes the least expected and uses them to shame the wise and educated and demonstrate that it’s not about our capabilities but his grace. Paul could not, therefore,
boast of his achievements and anointing because he knew where God took him from. He mentions that he worked harder than all the other apostles, but it was not just his hard work - it was the grace of God working through him. You can work hard on your own, but if God does not show you his favour or you don’t acknowledge his favour like Paul, your work can be in vain. This is not to say we must not work hard and wait for God's favour, no!!!!! Apostle Paul teaches us an important principle of balancing favour and hard work; we don’t sit and expect his favour to do things for us. His favour manifests through us as we work. Favour makes our work easier; favour opens doors that we would not have opened by hard work alone, favour makes us climb the ladder faster, favour makes us be seen and connected to people who matter in our path, favour makes our sweat count. I can go on and on, but here is the point, child of God - work harder but acknowledge his favour in your life. Apostle Paul says his favour was not in vain, and it brought about results- his favour will certainly be seen in your life.
Prayer Points
- Thank God for his grace - we are saved by grace - that’s where it starts.
- Ask for God’s favour in your entire life.
- Pray for all the work you do; ask God to manifest so that it’s not just work in vain, but it counts for generations to come.
- Pray for favour in ministry.
- Pray for strength and wisdom as you work.
- Pray for our Sunday services.
- Pray for our senior pastors Dr C & Pr S Chitapa.
- Pray for our president Dr Z & Pr T Mutsemi; pray for all our pastors and leaders.
Have a blessed day; may the Lord bless the work of your hands.
Dr M Ndlovu.