Partnering With God
Have you ever been invited to partner or collaborate on a project with someone that you respected or admired? It’s so exciting and fun! I love seeing everyone working together, each bringing their unique strengths and viewpoints to the table. Working with a team is so valuable and can make all the difference in the life of a project.
One of the most incredible things to me about the Kingdom of God is that it’s collaborative, not competitive.
Jesus invites us to co-labor with Him to bring Heaven to Earth every day.
He collaborated with the disciples, even though they were a hot mess most of the time.
The Holy Spirit was sent to us to empower us as we move about this earth doing God’s will. And He places us in community to collaborate lovingly with others. We weren’t created to go through life isolated and alone—we are made to join with others in advancing God’s Kingdom.
I can’t help but wonder how many times we miss out on opportunities for partnering with God because we’re busy expecting Him to perform a one-sided miracle. Or we think we’re unworthy to partner with what He’s doing on the earth so we take up a posture of passivity. But the Bible shows us that God can use anything we offer to bless others.
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Do you miss opportunities to serve because you think you're unworthy? Click To TweetPartnering with God in the Bible
When the poor and needy seek water,
Isaiah 41:17 (ESV)
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
What an incredible verse! God is intimately aware of our needs and he cares about us. He’s not just going to leave us alone in the dust to fend for ourselves, but He responds to our needs. This theme is found throughout the Bible:
- God met Hagar in the desert when she was running from Sarah (Genesis 16).
- He provided for Elijah, a widow, and her son (1 Kings 17).
- Jesus fed at least twenty thousand hungry people after a marathon sermon (Luke 9).
Each of these miraculous responses to someone’s needs looked different, but two out of the three required a person offering the little they had to God. In two of the examples above, God partnered with someone to meet the needs of another.
You Can’t Do Everything…
While God did miraculously rain down food from Heaven in the Bible (Exodus 16), He also seeks opportunities to include you and me in the work He is doing on the earth. I know this is an overwhelming concept—I feel overwhelmed as I’m writing this. There are so many needs out there, how can I partner with Him to solve all of them? The answer is, I don’t. And you don’t need to either.
God doesn’t make you or me responsible for solving every problem we see out there. But He does call His people to serve others and live a life of sacrifice. The church is called to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, help the poor, give clothing to the naked, and visit those in prison (Matthew 25)—we are called to do what we can to advance the Kingdom of God. This doesn’t mean I can kick my feet up and eat bonbons. I also can’t take on every single case as my own.
But You Can Do Something.
What if God’s plan to care for the poor and needy is you?
We each have a next step He’s inviting us to take. Through prayerful, strategic, and courageous action, we can partner with God to share abundant life with the world.
It’s so easy to think that helping “the world” means going to another country, but it’s so much simpler than that. There are very real needs in our neighborhoods, communities, and churches that we can work together to meet. We can link arms with a local food pantry or our small group and live out God’s mission. We can check in on our physical neighbors and care for those we interact with every day.
Related Post: A Lesson in Loving One Another
What if God's plan to care for the poor and needy is you? Click To TweetJoin the Conversation
Partnering with God doesn’t mean taking on responsibility for all of society’s ills and wearing ourselves out, but I do believe we’re all commissioned to do something.
Let’s pray for opened eyes to the needs around us and the courage to do what we can, even if we feel as though we don’t have enough. The Bible reminds me that the little with have, mixed with an ounce of faith, in the hands of God can lead to incredible miracles.
How can you partner with God and His people to bring the Kingdom to Earth?
