Light tasks and heavy lifting

Years ago, my wife and I were washing dishes together after dinner.  One baking dish was proving to be a particular challenge and, as I scraped and scrubbed, Peggy said, “Just let it soak for a while in soapy water.  Let the detergent do the work for you.”  Her advice actually sounded pretty good to me, so I filled the dish as she suggested and left it alone.  Then returning to the kitchen sink 20 minutes later, I was amazed at how easy it was to finish the job.  The dish soap had done the heavy lifting and my effort was actually pretty light.  And ever since, I’ve been perfectly happy to let the detergent do the work on the occasional, more difficult cookware cleaning job. 

We who live in Christ through faith share the task of helping others see the wonder of who he is and the power of what he does.  But sometimes we mistakenly take on the heavy lifting that only God can do.  We need to understand both his role and ours. 

We are called to tell others what Christ has done in our lives, but only God can draw them to himself.  Ours is to engage people and serve them as the Spirit leads us; it is God’s role to soften their hearts.  God is the one who opens doors for the sharing of God’s promises in Christ; we simply walk through them and speak. 

And only God owns his results.  We need not worry about the outcomes of our obedience; the sovereign God is in charge and fully capable of turning our Kingdom efforts into his Kingdom wins.  In fact, he’s the only one who can. 

Ours is simply to watch and listen, then obey and trust.  And to be perfectly happy to let God do the cleaning, the heavy lifting.

Click here to see today’s Scripture in Acts 8:26-39.  As you read the story of God, Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, distinguish between the tasks Philip undertook and the work only God could do.