For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We are equipped to demonstrate how beautiful God's grace is precisely because of our helplessness. Are we tired today? Rundown? Doubting? Unsure of how to communicate Jesus to a world that so urgently needs him? Fear not. For we are fragile, cracked vessels of grace and we are so because of our cracks and fragility. God delights to reveal himself in the middle of what we cannot do. This gives me great hope. I am not my own doing. I am God's. Our lives must be a confession of weakness and humility, of knowing our need of him, and of speaking hope in him and not ourselves. We have nothing to boast of but him. 1 Corinthians 1.31. I love the NRSV's verse 10: we are what he has made us. If we are anything at all it is only because of him. Take courage: there is work to be done but it starts with admitting that we cannot do it. Our works prepared in advance were never intended to be done without the help of the one who prepared them for us.
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