Do Not Receive God’s Grace in Vain | 2 Cor Devotional

“As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.” —2 CORINTHIANS 6:1

The Apostle Paul’s life is one of unrelenting pressure and grind. In his second letter to the Corinthians, he writes about extremely difficult hardships he’s faced; beatings, riots, imprisonments, persecutions, sleeplessness, hunger, sorrowful, poor, and that’s only part of what he’s endured. These aren’t once in a while occurrences, but a way of life for him.

Normally, we would run away from these things, but Paul’s response is not to receive God’s grace in vain. “For he says, ‘In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation’.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) If we have received God’s grace simply to get us into heaven, and know nothing of His grace in tumultuous times, then we have received God’s grace in vain. God’s grace is not just for the day we were converted and saved, not just for last year or five, ten, twenty years ago, but for today. Today is the day when His salvation is being worked out in us.

Contrary to what leaders in the church at Corinth believed, the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not exempt us from hardships and sufferings, but Paul says it throws us into the thick of them. When Paul says, “As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain,” he is saying not to fail to receive the resources of God, Himself, not necessarily to take away the problems, but to be to you and to be in you for today what enables you to live within that situation. Our difficult times are not illegitimate intruders into our lives, but a means of receiving God’s grace. When we draw upon it, we discover we have resources that are equal to the pressure.

There is no end to the grace of God. We are to go on receiving day by day His presence, because every day is the day of salvation. Paul says, “For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16). God is not up there somewhere, but at home in our hearts, and in every crisis and every situation, we have the sufficiency of His presence. The Christian life is living day by day, moment by moment in dependence upon God. We don’t ask Him to give us back what we had years ago, or even last week, but to give us today what He has for us today. 

Dear Lord, Thank You for the sufficiency of Your indwelling Spirit. May I always draw upon Your grace to see me through each day, especially in difficult times.

Do I live day by day in the sufficiency of God’s grace?