God Makes it Happen

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

1st Corinthians 3:5-6: What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

We can almost be fatalistic. We can look at the end of the passage, read "but God gave the growth," and say to ourselves, "Why bother serving? God's gonna do what God's gonna do." We could do that. But that's not what the passage is saying.

We use our S.H.A.P.E., which stands for Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences, and put it into practice. What ever we do, God makes the growth happen through what we do. We do the work, we serve people with the love of Christ, and we bring the Gospel to people in their situations and lives. God does the hard work. God the Holy Spirit creates faith, strengthens faith, and builds up faith in all of His people. God the Holy Spirit uplifts people when their down, strengthens people when they're weakened, and moves them to greater acts of services when they're out of gas.

God is the one who does it all THROUGH US. It's not that we're special, or important, or favored. Christians are not "better than everybody else." We're sinners and we struggle with sin daily. And we also believe that God has saved "a wretch like me." God works through struggling believers. God works through tired believers. God makes growth happen. We are servants of the most high God who gave forgiveness to sinners, life to those who are dead in sins, and G.R.A.C.E., which stands for God's Riches At Christ's Expense, that lives out Christ's love for us daily.

God grows us AND those people for whom we serve. God grows our hearts and minds and faith along with hearts and minds and faith of those for who we serve. God makes it happen. Dear God, move us to serve so that You make us grow, Amen.