Hand-In-Hand

1 Corinthians 3:⁹ “For we are fellow workmen (joint promoters, laborers together) with and for God; you are God’s garden and vineyard and field under cultivation, [you are] God’s building.” (AMPC)

For growth to happen, there is a God part and a man part. The first of three things we began to look at yesterday is God’s Part: He Invites, Our Part: We Respond. For some reading this, God has been inviting you to grow. You have to take the invitation. You have to take the invitation to prayer, to fasting, to purity, to holiness, and to a walk with God. You have to take the invitation to come up, for you to grow. Ephesians 1:⁴ “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” God has been inviting you. God is calling you. Romans 10:⁹ “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Do you know why? It is because God has already called you and that is your own response.

Secondly, God’s Part: He Teaches, Our Part: We Learn. John 14:²⁶ “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and remind you of everything I have told you.” (CSB, emphasis added). Hebrews 5:^11-14 “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (NIV, emphasis added).

Constant use and constant engagement. As they say, meat and bones require chewing, but milk does not. Have you seen anybody chewing milk? So, our job is to learn, regurgitate, engage, and wrestle with the Word of God. And anyone can put in the effort, anyone with practice and repetition can learn of God. That is what God is saying. His part is to teach you, even as you read this text. Your part is to learn and eat strong meat (or bone).

Thirdly, God’s Part: He Transforms, Our Part: We Surrender. After inviting us, we have responded. Having taught us and we have learnt. He seeks to transform us, and it requires us to surrender. We have to surrender, like clay in the hands of the Potter. You cannot say to the Potter, what are you doing? The Potter can break down the clay and make it into a new vessel. You have to remain soft, yield, be malleable, adaptable, and go where the Potter wants you to go. You have to become whoever and whatever the potter wants you to become. Surrender!

Prayer: Father, I receive Your invitation to grow, my heart is open to learning from You, I surrender all to You, in Jesus Name. Amen!