Obey by grace
Almighty God,
the strength of all who put their trust in you;
since through the weakness of our mortal nature,
we can do nothing good without you,
grant us the gift of your grace,
that in keeping your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
When we are feeling weary or discouraged, the opening of this collect reminds us of the wonderful promise that God “gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak … those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:29, 31). This promise is founded on God’s never-changing nature so we can trust it just as much now as in Isaiah’s day.
This strength is contrasted with the “weakness of our mortal nature”. Our thoughts might naturally turn to our physical limitations. However, the rest of the collect suggests that it is our moral weakness that is in view here. Every one of us is naturally sinful and turns away from God, as Paul writes in Romans 3:10-11. We can never please God on our own. That is not to say that unbelievers can do nothing which we would judge as good, but rather without faith in God, no-one can act in accordance with his will.
Often we want strength to complete our long to-do lists. Yet Jesus said “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). What does God ask of us? To keep his commandments. This is the sign of loving Jesus, as Jesus himself makes clear in John 14:23-24: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching… Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching”. Love and obedience are bound up together. And trust also has a place here. Obedience is a sign of trust: by obeying God we are saying that we think his ways are best and we believe that we will flourish if we obey them. And that flourishing, far from being at the expense of others, will overflow into benefits for them as well — especially if we take seriously the call to “love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31).
The key request in this collect, “grant us the gift of your grace”, asks God for what each of us needs day by day. Just as our Lord taught his disciples to ask the Father for their daily bread, so this prayer reminds us that we need God’s grace daily: the undeserved gift, not earned by our efforts, which brings us into union with Christ. It is only through that union that we are able to please God in both “will and deed”: not just through our actions but by the desires of a renewed heart which is tuned to God. Jesus makes it clear that “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). No fruit comes from branches which do not remain in Jesus. Those who are in Jesus have his Spirit in them, and living by the Spirit produces a harvest of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). It is God’s gift of grace which enables us to keep in step with the Spirit day by day, pleasing him with the obedience which he himself enables.
So pray this with me:
Almighty God,
the strength of all who put their trust in you;
since through the weakness of our mortal nature,
we can do nothing good without you,
grant us the gift of your grace,
that in keeping your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen