It is difficult for people to have a sense of partnering with God in their work when their work is hard and they are not seeing the results and outcomes that they are working toward. Since God is all-powerful, wouldn’t His partnership ensure that we would always be enjoying effectiveness in our work? How can we understand failed outcomes in any other way than God must not have been involved in that effort? Either we failed to work with Him correctly, or He must not care about that part of our work.

Given the amount of frustrating ineffectiveness that we encounter in our work lives, it is easy for someone in a “secular” field to conclude that God must not care about their work. But endeavors that are clearly ministries that God does care about (i.e. helping the poor) have just as much, if not more,. of these difficulties than secular endeavors. So the idea that partnering with God should fairly easily lead to significant effectiveness seems logical, but is not true.

Consider the ministry of Paul that we see in the New Testament. This is clearly a work that God cares about, and Paul does not display any awareness that he has failed to partner well with God. (I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, 2 Tim 4;7-8). Yet he encounters all kinds of difficulties and setbacks in his ministry. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Cor 4:8-9). Did Paul ever struggle with the idea that his work should be going more smoothly if He was partnering with the power of God?

This might be a part of 2 Corinthians 12 and Paul’s thorn in the flesh. I think that whatever his thorn in the flesh was, Paul saw it as making his ministry less effective. That is why he calls it a messenger of Satan and why he expects God to remove it. But the answer that the Lord provides radically changes Paul’s view of power and weakness as they relate to partnering with God. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Made perfect means to complete or fulfill. We naturally think that partnering with God means that we will be powerfully effective in what we are attempting to accomplish. But here Paul is told that God is accomplishing His purposes through Paul’s weakness and the apparent ineffectiveness of his ministry. This revelation changes Paul’s perspective. Rather than being frustrated and disturbed by the difficulties that he encounters, he states, For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

This really is a very different perspective. Instead of difficulties causing Paul to feel like God is not with him in his work, he now sees them as indicators that God is with him. That is hard to understand in a way that changes our experience of difficulties at work. We tend to champion partnering with God in our work with stories of impressive success and effectiveness, and that has its place. But I also think we would benefit greatly from stories of difficulty and ineffectiveness and how people encounter God’s presence in the midst of those experiences. Imagine how we would be able to walk through these times if we had the perspective of Paul when we are struggling in our work.

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.