Working Together For God And With God

How many players are there in a football team? The answer, of course, is eleven. No matter how brilliant any or all of them may be, they must play as a team if they are to be successful.

In the same way God wants Christians to work together with him in the great task of spreading the Good News about Jesus Christ. In Colossians chapter 4 Paul tells of ten men who were all different; some were Jews, some were not. But all of them, except one, proved to be an excellent team in helping Paul, and of course that meant they were all working together with God. In the same way, in 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul points out that while we each serve God in different ways with the gifts God has given to us, we must give all the honour to him and not to ourselves.

That was the problem with the man we read about in Paul's second letter to Timothy. His name was Demas, and he left God's team, and Paul, in the lurch, going away to do his own thing.

When we do work together with God and one another, humbly and enthusiastically trying to build up the church of Jesus Christ, we will know blessing and success just because God himself is in the team — he is our Captain!

Prayer

Almighty God, who has called us to work with you in the great task of spreading the Gospel to bring people to Christ, help us to do this to the glory of your name. Amen.