Today’s Devotion
Topic: God Brings The Increase!
Text: 1 Corinthians 3: 6
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. Amen
There are two great yet interconnected themes about today’s passage:
i. We live in a world where there is so much competition that we naturally create divisions around leaders, just to make it easy to prove which of the “leaders” is better and which ones are not.
ii. We get so much into our leaders that we forget the “God” who is working within them. The very “One” the leaders depend on for grace, intellect, wisdom etc.
Paul and Apollos did not consider themselves “lords”, in spite of the many remarkable things God did through them. Instead they called themselves servants of God, and gave HIM all their reverence. They worked hard day and night to accomplish their divine calling.
However the people tried to create division between these great “servants” just to prove which one was more powerful than the other. Apostle Paul explains that this kind of thinking is for those in the world and should not be the thought pattern of those of us who live by the Spirit.
He writes: “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task (1 Corinthians 3: 1- 5)
The Apostle then draws our attention to the fact that neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but the God who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and that is to ensure that the seed is giving the needed attention, practices and conditions that encourages growth. And yes, they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. This makes them co-workers in God’s service and not competitors who seek to prove which of them carried more power or following. (1 Corinthians 3: 7- 8a)
Those of us who live by the Spirit must go beyond the physical achievements of our leaders to revering that “Great God” who makes all things possible through them. It is He who deserves the Glory.
From today, let us stop the practice of “idolizing” our leaders and putting them in the place of God. You see, much as it is good to admire outstanding leadership, our greatest concern should be to watch out for the kind of “god” who is at work in them. That is why we must never cease praying for our leaders. Our daily prayer must be that God will take dominion of their hearts and use them for His glory.
For it is not about the one who plants or the one who waters; rather the GOD who makes all things grow; it is He who deserves the glory! “For man can do nothing unless it’s given him from above” (John 3:27). Begin to pray now!
Make room for God in all you do today. Click on this, let’s worship: https://youtu.be/HC5707bPzw0
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