Freely, Freely

Freely you have received, freely give. 
 - Jesus, in Matthew 10:8

Jesus gives this nice, neat summary of how to live the Christian life, and it's all grace. It's grace to receive God's favor without having to earn it or prove yourself. Then you pass it on to others. 

Henri Nouwen, the wonderful monk and author, put it this way:

Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God and live in community.  A lot of people are always concerned about: "How can I help people? Or help the youth come to Christ? Or preach well?"  But these are all basically non-issues.  If you are burning with the love of Jesus, don't worry; everyone will know.  They will say, "I want to get so close to this person who is so full of God."  

Take some time today and ponder whether you're trying to do all these good religious things out of your own strength or as an overflow of the grace that's been given you.