The joy and freedom of not having to do it all

Have you ever had that feeling of being overwhelmed? Of thinking that there are so many things to do and so little time? Of worrying that you won’t be able to get everything done and that it will all fall down if you don’t do it?

I’m sure we’ve all been there at one point or other. And people who work or volunteer in ministry are perhaps especially open to feeling this way. After all, when is ministry ever done? When can we sit back and think that we have completed looking after this ministry or this group of people? It can seem like chasing after the wind.

Let me encourage you today. Even when you cannot do it all, God is working. And really, we cannot do as much as we think that we can.

When it comes to church work, none of us can change one heart. The Holy Spirit does that. All we do is sow the seed, plant the word, and God does the work. For all of our activity, if God doesn’t work, it achieves nothing.

The same is true in our general lives. As Jesus said, we cannot count the numbers of hairs on our heads. We cannot add an extra hour to our lives. Even if you have a responsible job, you need to remember this. God is the one in ultimate control, not you, and not me. We must not think of ourselves more highly than we ought.

Isn’t that a joy? If we have really grasped this, it means we can work hard for God, but we can also rest. When we take a day off, the world will not stop. God remains at work.

It also means that prayer is so much more important than we often think it is. After all, if God is the one who does all the really significant work, we should ask him to do it. If we only work ourselves and don’t pray, we are showing by our actions that we think too highly of ourselves.

It doesn’t all depend on you, however it might feel like it does. What joy that is!