Christian Striving

Some thoughts on the matter of the effort which the individual is to put forth in his walk with God and service for God. We believe in salvation - including sanctification - by grace. Yet what have we here?

1 Cor. 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
Phil. 3:12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

From MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind:
"But I wasn't brave of myself," said Diamond.... "It was the wind that blew in my face that made me brave. Wasn't it, North Wind?"
"Yes, I know that. You had to be taught what courage was. And you couldn't know what it was without feeling it: therefore it was given you. But don't you feel as if you would try to be brave yourself next time?"
"Yes, I do. But trying is not much."
"Yes, it is - a very great deal, for it is a beginning. And a beginning is the greatest thing of all. To try to be brave is to be brave. The coward who tries to be brave is before the man who is brave because he is made so, and never had to try."

Now, it is interesting to contemplate all these things together. We trust and obey to walk with God, but is there not an element of effort involved? And, would we not assume that the effort would only exist because there had previously been a work of grace in the heart. If we are His, we assume we have the grace, especially if we have asked. Our part then is to use it.

Addendum: 1 Corinthians 15:10 - But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.