A Prayer About Hard Work

When I try to earn God’s favor

GRACIOUS GOD,

I have worked hard all my life. Nothing has ever come easy, and I have given everything my best effort. Sometimes the results were quite positive; other times, not so much. But I always felt good about giving my all. I brought that same work ethic and self-reliance to the Christian life and threw myself into every type of spiritual task imaginable: reading the Bible, praying, serving, raising money, teaching, singing, and generally being at church for every event possible. Until I burned out in all my religious effort. I realize now that you don’t rate me on the amount of work I do for you and that I was trying to earn your favor. Instead, I need to trust you and allow you to do your work in me and through me. I know you don’t want me to be lazy, but I should work hard for your Kingdom as a result of being saved, not in order to be saved. Thank you that all the work of salvation was done on the cross through Christ.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8-9