Resources/Articles
Doing What We Can
He who plants and he who waters are one,
and each one will receive
his own reward
according to his own labor.
1 Corinthians 3:8
At times, we become discouraged because what we do for the Lord seems unsuccessful. The children we teach in the Sunday Bible class are restless and inattentive. The neighbors we are trying to reach with the gospel are politely indifferent. The members of our own families are far from the Lord. The world we life up to God in hearty, fervent intercession grows increasingly immoral, violent, and anti-Christian. All of this can add up to deep soul-discouragement.
Hear the words of a Salvadoran preacher who was murdered for his fearless denunciation of violence and injustice. He wrote: “We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seed already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development...We cannot do everything, and there’s a sense of liberation in realizing that.”
The above words will help us in doing small things, and after that, leave God’s grace and power the time an opportunity to do the rest. This is what Paul described in 1 Corinthians 3:6,7. We can plant like others have done before us. We can water as others have done. We need to fulfill each of those tasks with trust in a promise. It is a promise from God where He will “give the increase.”
Believe what Isaiah 55:10,11 says about God’s word: “For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, and giveth seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
Do not allow discouragement to cause you to quit. In God’s own time, our work will bear fruit. Go. Labor more. Spend. Be spent. Do the Father’s will with joy. Give your faith an opportunity to work in the place God has you today.
