Understanding the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility is an intellectual pursuit for most people it’s a puzzle of ideas.
The bitter fruit of laziness, anxiety, and pride can creep into our lives whenever we get it wrong. And on the flip side, the beautiful fruit of a restful heart and selfless love can result from getting it right. This is no theoretical discussion. It’s the difference between living a full life or stagnation.
I’ve often wondered how our work relates to God’s work. There are three possibilities we can look at.
- God does nothing, and we do everything
Some people live this way by conviction. Believing there is no God, they are compelled to take full responsibility. Others simply live this way in practice. Lots of people say they follow God but then instinctively try to fix it.
I have found myself trying so hard to fix it so many times that I stew and worry, and immediately go into problem-solving mode, rather than pray and surrender my problems to God and ask for help.
Psalm 127:1, explains. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who built it. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain.”
This doesn’t mean that people cannot build a house, or keep cities safe, but when we do, it’s because of the help of the very God, but they deny God. What’s the point of building a house or a secure city if you don’t have God? Life doesn’t flourish apart from Him. Life becomes blessed when we rely on God.
The second possibility is the opposite.
2. God does everything, and we do nothing
Sometimes people disguise passivity and laziness in spiritual garb. We love to “let go and let God.” God loves those people because they trust that He will meet every need.” When we say “I’ll pray for you,” instead of offering practical help that will cost us something. When we finally step in to help someone, they are worried, and anxious and are ready to walk away.
In Psalm 127:2 Solomon says, “It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved one.” I noticed something important here. While it’s true that the Lord must build the house, there are still people building the house. And while the Lord must watch the city, there are still human beings guarding the city. It is not the will of the Lord that we should be like blocks of wood, or that we should keep our arms folded without doing anything.
God’s help isn’t meant to make us into couch potatoes. His work never undercuts ours. Philippians 2:2-3 tells us, “Make my joy full, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself.” This implies that we should apply all our talents and advantages that God has given us.
The third possibility is,
3. God does everything, and we do something.
God calls us to do something in this world, to be active, even abounding, in good works. 1 Corinthians 15:58 states, “Therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is vain in the Lord.” But even as we abound in activity, we are to recognize that were never doing as much as God does. It’s true that “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build labor in vain.
In every possibility we need God, but He never needs us because His us sovereign. Knowing God works in and through us should make us more, not less active in the good works He has planned for us.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:10 says,
“But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
From Pity to Praise 