Today we continue our series entitled, “Pursuing Grace-Based Success!”
Here are our foundational scriptures:
(Ephesians 2:8-10 ERV)
8 I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.
9 You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about.
10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.
(1 Corinthians 1:30,31 NLT)
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”
(2 Timothy 1:9 NKJV)
Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.
Earlier in this series, I taught you about the importance of hard work. For years, as I have been teaching you about #TheGraceLife, I have told you that God does not want you to work solely on your own by human effort and natural strength. I taught you that God wants you to rely on His grace. By God’s grace, you can work hard doing what He has called you to do, but you can do it without getting overwhelmed, overloaded, or stressed out.
Have you ever heard the phrase “By the sweat of your brow“? It comes from our verse for today, which is Gen 3:19.
(Gen 3:19 NLT)
By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
In Genesis chapter three, Adam and Eve sinned. This caused God to curse the serpent, the man, and the woman. God’s curse over Adam was that he would have to work hard for his food. Before the sin event, Adam received everything by God’s unearned grace. God had given Adam purpose, power, partnership, and parameters. Adam lived in abundance. Adam and Eve’s only physical need was food, and they had an entire Garden (more like a forest) to eat from. They had more than they would ever need, and it was all given to them by God’s unearned grace. However, Adam violated the one rule he had, and his sin caused him to lose it all. Adam was cursed, kicked out of the Garden, and forced to WORK for everything he was going to get. Another translation reads, “You will work hard for your food, until your face is covered with sweat. You will work hard until the day you die, and then you will become dust again. I used dust to make you, and when you die, you will become dust again.”
So what does this mean for you today? I will give you a few quick thoughts as we close out the week.
1. Prior to the fall, Adam was experiencing The Blessing. He had communion with God, companionship with his wife, an abundance of everything he needed, and the authority to rule this planet. Adam was living the good life, and everything he had was given to him by God’s unearned grace. This is actually the picture of what Jesus redeemed us to (by the way).
2. When Adam sinned, he lost access to The Blessing. Adam was cursed, his communion with God was severed (he lost the Holy Spirit), his access to the provision of the Garden was revoked, and once he was kicked out of the Garden, he was forced to WORK hard for everything he was going to get from that point on. This is the mess Adam got himself into, and unfortunately, for us, this is the mess we were BORN into becuase of Adam. Once again, thankfully, Jesus came to get us OUT OF the mess Adam got us INTO.
3. The curse God spoke over Adam was that he (and man in general) would have to work hard for his food and earn his provision by the sweat of his brow. Hard work by human effort, without the grace of God, is part of the curse and NOT The Blessing. We were born with the inheritance of Adam. So when we are born, we are born into a system where we have to WORK HARD for everything we get. However, once we are Born-Again, we gain access to another system. This system gives us access to the grace Adam had before the fall.
4. Jesus came to redeem us from every curse. He did not redeem us back to Abraham. Jesus redeemed us all the way back to Adam, prior to the fall and prior to the curse. We are not supposed to earn everything we achieve in life now by hard work alone, relying solely on human effort, earning things through the sweat of our brow. No. That is not a picture of God’s best.
5. God still expects us to work because work is tied to the divine purpose God sent you to this planet to complete. Adam was working prior to the fall. Like Jesus, his work was to do the will of the Father. God gave Adam work before he gave him a wife. But the way in which Adam was working before the fall, under The Blessing, was completely different than it was afterward.
— Before the fall of man, Adam worked, but he enjoyed grace-based success. Adam walked with God in the cool of the day, he received revelation from God concerning what to say and how to say it, and God blessed everything he put his hands to do.
— After the fall, Adam was left on his own, working hard by human effort alone, and he had to sweat to earn everything he received.
— Which picture do you think God expects you to identify with? Adam in the Garden or Adam after he was kicked out of the Garden? I submit to you that God wants you to identify with Adam in the Garden of Eden. That is the life He wants you to live. God wants you to experience success, but success His way, graced based, with His favor on your work, so that you don’t rely on yourself and your own ability to accomplish what God has called you to do.
6. Don’t confuse a job with work:
— People do “jobs” to earn their living. This is part of the curse. This is part of “the sweat of your brow.” Many who do jobs to earn their living hate it. They do what they do, they sweat their way through it, and they basically “suck it up,” becuase they feel as though they need to EARN a living. This is part of the curse. This is the mess Adam got us into.
— Jesus came to redeem us. Once we are redeemed, we still work, but our work is connected to our purpose.
— Jesus said, “My Father is always working, so I am always working!” Remember, Adam was working before the fall. But he was not working to earn a living. He was working to fulfill his purpose.
— When you know who you are, and you know what you are called to do, then you know you have WORK to do! If you get paid to do it, then great. If you have to take jobs from time to time to earn something for this or that, then that is understandable. But don’t confuse a job with your work. There will come a day when you retire from a job. But you will never retire from your work!
— We have been looking at Ephesians 2:10. That verse teaches us that God made us new people, so we can spend the rest of our lives doing the GOOD WORKS He destined for us to do!
— Adam was working by the grace of God before the fall. God was blessing the work of his hands. Adam was experiencing grace-based success. This is how we are supposed to live!
— When you live #TheGraceLife, you can say what Paul said. “I work hard. I actually work harder than everyone around me. But then again, it’s not me. It’s the grace of God through me!” When you live this way, you are not earning everything by the sweat of your brow. That’s the curse! You are working becuase you are CALLED to do it. You are walking out your purpose, and God will see to it, like He did with Adam in the Garden, that all your needs are met, plus more!
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about grace-based success.
I do understand the value of hard work. Thank You for teaching me the difference between working hard on my own and working hard by Your grace.
I know what it is to work hard without Your grace. I have worked hard, and I have pursued things with my own blood, sweat, and tears. I know what it is like to have to earn everything by the sweat of my brow. There was a point in my life when I thought that that was how I was supposed to live. However, I thank You for teaching me about Your grace.
Jesus redeemed me from the curse. I am Born-Again, filled with Your Spirit, covered by the Blood of Your Son, and I am a citizen of heaven. I live in this world, but I am not of this world.
I now work by grace, not human effort, and I experience the difference. By Your grace, I can get more done in a shorter time, to work long hours when I need to, but without getting stressed, frustrated, or overtaxed. Therefore, GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
