The stuggle of Grace and Self-Will

For the last few days I've been thinking about the relation of these two ideas... On one hand, you have the grace of God; Pure and Incomparable, unmerited favour, through it we experience love, redemption and forgiveness. On the other, we have self-will; often flawed, risky and incredibly difficult (due to its' need for discipline and self-sacrifice). My current opinion is that we cannot embody a healthy spirituality without a unique combination of the two. But my question to the teacher is this; where do the two meet, where do we draw the line between enough effort and discipline to lead a holy life and a simple reliance on Gods ability to save us from ourselves.

GRACE is a beautiful thing, it is a form of love that goes beyond what we can justify in ordinary human relationships. It has the ability to free us from a nature and position of otherwise helplessness. Grace provides a way out for the everyday sinner who has been entangled and left disabled by their fallenness. One could easily rely on the provision of grace, even to excuse a lifestyle of habitual sin and careless living, but as God has shown me, it is his constant kindness that leads us towards repentance and a desire to change our ways. Grace is Gods' gift to us through his son Jesus, it was never meant to be a reason to become complacent and stale.

SELF-WILL... we've all thought at one time or another, "if i just try hard enough, i can quit smoking...drinking...being lazy...being judgemental..." etc. But most of the time we fail our pursuits for righteousness. Self will is very important, because it is what God has given us to determine our choices for eternity. Without it we are all just clones and robots to a meaningless cause and future. We are given responsibility of our own lives, which in itself is a divine act of love on Gods' behalf. The opportunities for life or lifelessness are in our wake...

I would surmise that we use our will to respond to the kindness shown to us through the grace of God. The areas of weakness in our life and where we find ourselves to be lacking, are covered by grace, after all Gods' power is made perfect in our weakness. Paul says, we are running a race, and we should run to win. If we are to see fruit in this life, we must to some degree be disciplined, prepared, trained and ready. There is a certain element that involves each individual 'taking up their cross' and following Christ daily. But each of us must also remember that Christ is the one true lover of our souls, who has delivered us from the pit of corruption. Thanks be to Jesus, come on! Rest assured that grace covers our failings, and we will never be forsaken. But i will endevour to show my love towards God by what i do and the choices that i make in this life... These are my thoughts for now,
Michael