Unworthy made Worthy.

1 Corinthians 15:10(NIV) But by THE GRACE OF GOD I AM WHAT I AM, and His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--YET NOT I, but the grace of God that was with me. When what we call verses today were written, they were written as letters or epistles to the churches of God by His apostles, Paul being one of them. Therefore it is important sometimes that we read the lines before our verse of interest, maybe there is something for us there to know. Therefore we will look at the verse before the our opening scripture. This is it, Paul says "for I am the least of the apostles and DO NOT EVEN DESERVE to be CALLED AN APOSTLE, because I persecuted the church of God."(1 Corinthians 15:9) - the words of Paul are too saddening before we read the verse that follows, and it says "But by THE GRACE OF GOD I AM WHAT I AM..." - GRACE MADE HIM DESERVING even though he was formerly undeserving. It is grace that made us deserving of such a salvation that doesn't come alone but is also followed by an inheritance reserved in heaven for us. It is that grace that made us a people of God when we were not, as Paul even said "at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without HOPE and without God in the world."(Ephesians 2:12). Even though yesterday we were unworthy but today we are more than worthy, and for that reason I thank God weeping because now we have found grace in God's sight. The story about the woman with a flow of blood is a story that teaches how Jesus made us worthy. The ailment that the woman had was in the category of leprosy, of uncleanliness and by the law if a person was unclean they had to be separated from others, given a place of their own until they are cleansed, just in case they touch others and make them unclean as well. If this woman was passing by in the street and a person came near her, she would have to shout and say "I AM UNCLEAN, I AM UNCLEAN" and by the world's standard that woman was a NOBODY, but it is strange that when she touches Jesus' garment, He says "SOMEBODY hath touched me..."(Luke 8:46), she went from being a NOBODY to a SOMEBODY, after she touched the Lord. The definition of grace according to the Amplified bible is "undeserved favor". When a person is not deserving it simply means they are unworthy to deserve, they do not qualify. But thanks be to God who has qualified us, we who "were not a people, but now we are the people of God."(1 Peter 2:10),we "are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and MEMBERS of God's household,"(Ephesians 2:19). Its really a sad thing when people say things like, "I was sinning, I don't deserve to get the promotion" or people preaching to others that "since you sinned God will not bless you or you'll stop being blessed because you sinned" and they forget that the reason we are blessed in the first place is not because we did something right but because Jesus died for us, "out of His FULLNESS we have ALL received GRACE UPON GRACE"(John 1:16) and "through the obedience of the ONE MAN the MANY will be made righteous."(Romans 5:19). We don't see angels because we keep our eyes clean by not watching pornography, we see angels because "when one turns to the Lord, THE VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY"(2 Corinthians 3:16). All we need to do is to receive the grace and grow in it. Most of the things we have now we didn't deserve, not even one little bit but God still loved us. Jesus spoke about God and said "He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."(Luke 6:35), if God is kind to those, how much more to us who are covered by the precious blood of Jesus?

Paul knew something when he said "RECEIVE NOT THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN..."(2 Corinthians 6:1). The conclusion of all these things is that it is by grace we are worthy. God Bless You.