I enjoy working out. In one series of videos I use, the leader says, "There is no magic pill." What she means is that there isn't a short cut to health and fitness. You have to put in the work, both in the kitchen and as you exercise.
I think we all like to work hard at something. We want people to see what we've done and praise us for our hard work. I'm a little sad when no one notices how clean the floor is or the neat piles of folded laundry put away in drawers.
Sometimes we even want people to see how hard we are working as Christians. We are working to share Jesus' love with more people, we are working to encourage our fellow believers, we are working to lead our children to Jesus. We want people, and even God, to notice our hard work and to reward us for it.
Ephesians 2:8-10 puts it into the correct perspective for us. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Because we Jesus loves us, we have been given the power to live lives that demonstrate God's love to the people around us.
