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Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.—Colossians 3:23–24
Whenever I speak at writers’ workshops and conferences, I often share my testimony of how God opened the publishing doors for me at my very first writers’ conference. … Then I always say, “God put His ‘super’ to my ‘natural’!”
Of course, that statement often raises questions, so I go on to explain that if I hadn’t researched what publishing houses were going to be at that particular conference, prepared my manuscripts in a professional manner, practiced my pitch and made appointments to meet with those two publishers, I wouldn’t have walked away with two book contracts in the highly competitive children’s book market. I had to do my part so God could do His.
If I had stayed home from the conference and prayed for God to somehow get my stories published but never sent them off to any publisher, then I’d still be unpublished and “believing God” for His supernatural intervention.
Too many of us are waiting on God to act when He is waiting on us to be obedient and do what He has called us to do in the natural, so He can add His “super” to it.
The Bible is full of examples of this principle. Let’s look at three:
- God told Moses to raise up his staff, and when he did, God parted the sea so that the Israelites could cross over on dry ground. But, Moses had to do his part—raising up his staff (Exodus 14).
- God instructed Joshua to have all of his men march around Jericho one time, every day for six days. Then, on the seventh day, they were instructed to march around the city seven times and have the priests blow the trumpets and the others shout the victory on that seventh time, and at that moment, God said He would do the supernatural—cause the wall around the city to fall down—which, of course, He did! But they had to do their part first—walking around the city, blowing the trumpets, and shouting (Joshua 6).
- It was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and Jesus and His disciples were there with Mary, the mother of Jesus. When the wine ran out, Mary told Jesus the situation. Jesus told the servants to fill the six stone pots with water. So, they did. And, then Jesus told them to draw some out and take it to the headwaiter, which they did. When the headwaiter tasted the water, it had become wine. Jesus did the supernatural but the servants had to do their part—fill up the stone pots with water and draw some out to take to the headwaiter (John 2). …
So, if you’ve been waiting on God to do the supernatural in your life, ask Him what part He wants you to play and then obey.—Michelle Medlock Adams1
The step of faith
God expects us to do what we can do and trust that if something is God’s will, He will do the part that we can’t do. This has often been referred to as “taking a step of faith.” The Gospels are full of examples of people being called to take a step of faith first before Jesus performed the miraculous part that only He could do.
In one instance, we read that upon entering the synagogue, Jesus encountered a man whose hand was withered. Jesus said to him, “Stretch out your hand,” and as the man put forth the effort, believing that Jesus would heal him, his hand “was completely restored, just as sound as the other” (Matthew 12:9–13).
In another case, Jesus saw a man who had been blind from birth, and after spitting on the ground, He made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. Jesus then told him to go wash his eyes in a certain pool. This man believed Jesus and obeyed Him, and “he went and washed and came back seeing” (John 9:1–7).
When ten lepers begged Jesus to have mercy on them and heal them, He told them to go show themselves to the priests. According to Jewish custom, after a leper had been healed, he was to present himself to the priest to verify his healing. The lepers hadn’t been healed yet, but they believed and obeyed, and “as they went they were cleansed” (Luke 17:12–14).
And in the account of how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, we see that before performing this miracle, Jesus commanded that the stone covering the entrance of the tomb be removed. When the mourners who were gathered at Lazarus’s tomb obeyed Jesus’ request and rolled away the stone, they demonstrated their faith in Jesus to perform the miracle of bringing Lazarus back to life—and He did. Jesus could have supernaturally rolled the stone away, just like He supernaturally raised Lazarus from the dead, but He didn’t. He first required the onlookers to put their faith into action and do what they could do (John 11:1–44).
Likewise in an account of Jesus feeding four thousand people, we read that Jesus was concerned and had compassion on the people, as they had no food. His disciples were worried about how to feed so many people. Jesus asked them to bring what few loaves and fishes they had and to have the crowd sit down. After giving thanks for the food, He had His disciples place the food before the crowd. As they did so, Jesus did the miracle of multiplying the food so that not only did everyone have enough to eat, but they collected seven baskets of leftovers (Mark 8:1–9).
Jesus did many miracles and signs during His time on earth, but those who received these had to take a step of faith to trust in Him. Of course, the most important step of faith is to fully place our trust in Jesus by confessing Him as our Lord and Savior, and committing to following His will and living according to His Word (John 14:15).
As we do our part and commit our lives, our decisions, our actions and relationships to Him, we can have the sure knowledge that He hears us and will act according to His good will. “This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15).—Activated
Just do your part
From cover to cover the Bible is filled with stories of people who could not do it all, but did their parts, and it was enough because God took care of the rest. One of the most prominent examples is the feeding of the five thousand, which is recorded in all four of the Gospels. That day, Jesus was in a wilderness area and a great multitude went to see Him. He taught the people all day long, and at evening the disciples told Him that He should send the people away so they could eat. Jesus responded, “We don’t need to send them away. You feed them.”
What a challenge! Philip said, “Lord, even if we had two hundred pennies’ worth (about six months’ wages) of bread, it wouldn’t be enough to buy food for everyone.” The crowd was huge—at least five thousand men, plus women and children. Eventually the disciples found a young boy who had brought a lunch to the gathering, but all he had was five loaves of bread and two fishes. Andrew saw the contents of his lunch and remarked, “What is that among so many?” (John 6:9).
That is often how we feel when we contrast our abilities with the problems we encounter. When we evaluate what we have to offer, we will see that at best, it is ridiculously insignificant compared to the enormity of the needs around us. However, we have to remember: God doesn’t expect us to do it all; He only expects us to do our part.
The boy who gave his lunch did not go home to get more food or find other recruits. He simply gave what little he had and let God handle the matter. The Bible tells us that Jesus blessed what the boy offered, broke it, and then used it to feed the multitude. The power to do the miracle didn’t come from the boy; it came from God.
Even though our part is small, it will not necessarily be easy. … Yet God still expects us to do our part, and if we ask, He will give us the strength and grace to do it. In that sense, He actually helps us with our part too. All we need to offer is willing obedience. And when we do that, He will do the same thing with our lives that He did with the boy’s lunch: He will bless it, break it, and use it to meet the needs of others.—Peter Sletmoe2
Published on Anchor May 2026. Read by John Laurence. Music by John Listen.
https://anchor.tfionline.com/post/doing-our-part/?check_auth=
1 Michelle Medlock Adams, “Do Your Part So God Can Do His,” Guideposts, https://guideposts.org/positive-living/health-and-wellness/life-advice/finding-life-purpose/do-your-part-so-god-can-do-his/
2 Peter Sletmoe, “Just Do Your Part,” Apostolicfaith.org, March 31, 2016, https://www.apostolicfaith.org/the-apostolic-faith/just-do-your-part
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