The attitude of Paul is one that we should all share.  Even though he was a famous apostle of Christ, he never allowed it to cause him to be puffed up.  He realized that whatever he accomplished in Christ was by the grace of God.

1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV)
¹⁰  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Paul demonstrated two dispositions that we should all possess today.  First, he was humble enough to give God the credit for his accomplishments.  If God had not revealed the truth to him, by way of his encounter with the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus, he probably would have continued down a path of destruction.  After his conversion, while Paul did not live in the past (Philippians 3:13), he did not forget about it either.  Instead, he allowed it to remind him how blessed he was that God was willing to forgive him and make him an apostle of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:9 (ESV)
⁹  For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Paul was not the least of the apostles, but he felt like he was due to the cruel way that he persecuted the saints before his conversion.  Fortunately, instead of allowing the mistakes that he made in the past to paralyze him, he used them as motivation to be the best Christian possible.  This leads us to our next point.

Knowing that it was by God’s grace that he was even a Christian, Paul worked harder than anyone to show his appreciation.  We do not have to wonder about Paul’s work ethic.  More of his efforts for Christ are revealed in the book of Acts than any other saint.  And how do we find Paul when we read the story of his life?  We find him constantly laboring for the Lord.  He worked tirelessly in doing the work of the Lord.  Why?  Because he appreciated, beyond words, the very fact that he was a disciple of Christ.  He knew he was what he was by the grace of God.

Should we not be as humble as Paul?  We have also been saved by grace.  Maybe we did not commit the crime that Paul did, that is, we never persecuted Christians unto death, but we have all sinned nevertheless (Romans 3:23).  Let’s always remember that one sin puts us in the need of the grace of God.  The only way we can rely on ourselves for salvation is to never sin.  I do not think anyone reading this blog would put themselves into that category.  We all need the blood of Christ to wash away our sins, and that blood was provided by God’s grace.  Without the grace of God, we would be nothing.  Let’s humble ourselves before God and praise Him for His mercy and grace.

Let’s also demonstrate our appreciation as Paul did.  He did not allow God’s grace to be given to him in vain but took advantage of his new state of redemption by giving his all to the Lord.  Let us all imitate Paul in this.  Let’s not just talk about being thankful but prove it by working as hard as we can for the Lord.  Let’s be able to say with Paul, “I have worked harder than any of them.”  Then we will know for sure that the grace that God has given us was not in vain.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.