When my boys were younger, a physical education coach taught all his students how to juggle. My middle son Christopher was especially good at it. I remember him juggling oranges and balls around the house, dropping a few, starting over, repeatedly trying to master the art of juggling.

I read something recently that made me think about this. Robert J. Foster, in his book Celebration of Discipline, said, “The opposite of grace is works– but not effort.”

Performance Driven

The first part of this quote is something I learned the hard way. In my desire to please God in my younger years, I slipped over into works. In other words, I was performance-driven. I didn’t understand the law of righteousness (attempt to earn God’s favor through our actions) versus our righteousness by faith (receiving through faith in Jesus alone).

Thankfully, the Lord delivered me from a works-based mentality and I found true freedom in the work of Christ (what He did instead of what I could do).

But notice what Foster said, “The opposite of grace is works– but not effort.”

One Thing I Do

I immediately thought of the words of Paul in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”

I’ve always thought it was funny Paul said “one thing I do” and then he named three things (forget the past, reach for what’s ahead, and press to the goal). But in context, he really was emphasizing only one thing: make every effort.

The word effort could mean exertion, which would be similar to works. But here’s the difference: works have to be maintained, whereas effort is rooted in purpose.

My son made lots of effort to master juggling (which he did). But it would’ve been exhausting, not to mention impossible, to maintain juggling. In other words, he couldn’t keep it up. At some point, the balls would fall or he would get weary and want to stop.

And this is how it is when we try to “work” or “maintain” our right-standing with God on our own. But effort, that’s different. We should have effort.

Faith on Repeat.

The Bible says, “So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless” (James 2:17 NLT). The New King James says, “Faith without works is dead.” Maybe it helps us to read it this way: Faith without effort is dead.

I don’t want to juggle my faith. I don’t want to have to perform or work at pleasing God all the time. And He doesn’t want that either. What does He ask for? “Believe that He exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]” (Hebrews 11:6b AMPC). 

Faith will take effort because we live in a fallen world ruled by darkness. But gratefully, the Lord said all who come to Him will be received and translated out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His Son Jesus (Colossians 1:13).

So, we make every effort to take hold of it– forgetting the past, looking forward to what’s ahead, and pressing toward that upward call of God in Christ!

Effort is simply faith on repeat. Effort, is good.