God Requires Effort – Not Results!
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles“It won’t do any good.” This is the usual response made by many of us when we are asked to invite someone to hear the gospel being preached or when we consider trying to talk to someone about religion. This is wrong! Dead wrong! It will do good! It can do no other than good because it is what God requires! The reason behind this erroneous response is that we think God requires “results” from us in the form of numbers and such like.
The only thing God requires of us is “effort” and lots of it! Paul said of the establishment and growth of the church at Corinth, “I planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6). “Planting” and “watering” are the duties of God’s children ….. “increase” is God’s business. If we are diligent about our work in the Lord, God is faithful in His.
Far too often, we get discouraged when God does not give us the increase we expect. Thus, we become lax in our efforts to plant and water the seed, the Word of God. But to cure this evil, Paul, by the Spirit, wrote: “And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Gal. 6:9).
The next time you have the opportunity to sow or water some spiritual seed, don’t think of it in terms of wasted effort just because you “think” it won’t do any good. Work, teach, invite, and encourage everyone with whom you come in contact to be what the Lord would have them to be. Remember what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”