“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.” 2 Timothy 1:6

There is no man alive today, who would not desire that the grace of God (which has already appeared unto all men work for him. Having defined grace as unmerited favor, that grace of God which has been deposited into your life, needs to be activated or stirred up.

What does it mean to stir?

To stir means to mix or cause movement in a thing that has being in a state of dormancy. For example, in the medical world, there are some drugs that you must stir up, by shaking the bottles, before they can be effective. As far as those suspensions are concerned, that is the rule and it has to be obeyed before you can get the desired result. The doctor that prescribed them is not to be blamed, if you fail to obey the instructions.

Likewise, in the Spiritual world, if that grace lies dormant, God is not to be blamed, because man is the determining factor whether that grace is activated or not. The extent to which the grace of God finds expression in your life, is determined by how well you stir it up.

So, the stirring is your responsibility, not God’s! Truly, just as my husband says: responsibility is the price for greatness!

The need to stir up the grace of God

“GRACE…it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8

Just like every other gift of God, grace has to be stirred up.

“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.” 2 Timothy 1:6

The word “stir” in the above scripture simply means to activate, to cause to be active and to bring into use. The grace of God, which is a gift from God, can therefore, be likened to a deposit of great treasure on the inside of man.

At salvation, this treasure is deposited inside man by God, through Jesus Christ. However, for that great treasure to be useful to man, there has to be a stirring up; it has to be activated, and put to use.

God deposits the treasure inside man, but man has the responsibility to activate it before he can benefit from it. Granted, the grace of God has so much to offer man, but it has to be activated, stirred up, put to work, caused to be active, before man can enjoy its benefits.

Great is the deposit of the grace of God on the inside of the believer; but there has been very little stirring up. The reason you are not enjoying the grace of God more than you should right now, is not because that grace is not available; it is because there is not enough of stirring up.

The more you activate the grace of God in your life /i.e. stir up, put to use, cause to be active, the more you enjoy that grace and vice versa. God is constant; He will always fulfill His own part. Man is the variable, and he must fulfill his own part of activating the grace of God, before he can enjoy it.

Please be aware that it is your personal, non-transferable responsibility to stir up the deposit of the grace of God in you; no one can do this on behalf of another! The level to which you enjoy the grace deposit in you, is determined by how much you activate it.

May you not be a waster of the gift of God in your life!…

This text is an extract from the book “GROWING IN GRACE” written by Faith A. Oyedepo. 
We invite you to read the following article “Appreciate The Grace And The Power That Embedded In It“.