Daily devotion – Frustrated?
1 Corinthians 3:5–7
“Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”
Do you ever feel discouraged when a loved one shows no interest in the gospel? You share Christ faithfully, they listen respectfully, and yet—no movement, no response, no sign of turning to the Lord.
How quickly we allow frustration to rise when things don’t go the way we long for them to!
But there is a lesson the Lord continually brings before me: I cannot live another person’s life for them. I cannot make them choose the path I know will bring them joy, peace, and salvation. As a pastor, this is especially painful—watching people drift from God, or remain trapped in habits and sins that crush their own lives and those around them.
Yet God has given us a place to bring all these emotions—our grief, our aching concern, our longing for those we love.
We can fall on our knees and cry out to Him in prayer.
We can pour out our hearts before His throne for unsaved or wandering family and friends.
Paul understood this deeply. His burden for Israel was so intense that he wrote:
Romans 9:1–5
“…that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren…”
This was a man who prayed with tears for a people who refused to receive their Messiah. Yet he entrusted them to God—the only One who can truly save a human soul.
So this Christmas season, instead of letting frustration take root, let us allow godly grief to move us to prayer.
Let us call upon the Lord with faith, with love, and with hope—
and then leave the results with Him.
For salvation is His work.
We plant, we water, but God alone gives the increase.