But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand. Acts 4:4
It’s not about you.
Have you ever made the most eloquent argument, based on Scripture, driving home all the finer points only to have your “mark” shrug and walk away? “I planted the seed.”
How about just striking up what started out to be a normal, casual conversation but quickly turned to matters of faith — and you don’t remember how it got there? “Apollos watered it.”
It’s about God.
Or have you seen someone study with a friend, then study with a different friend, then days later — perhaps weeks or months or even years — you find out from a brother in another city that this person has given her life to Christ, being baptized in His name, and is now living for Him? “But God made it grow.”
So neither he who plants is nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.1 Corinthians 3:6-7
In Acts chapter 3, Peter got the chance to heal a man who had been crippled from birth (Acts 3:1-10), and beginning with verse 11, the Rock gets a chance to address the crowd with the Gospel message. This is the man who just days ago was speaking in languages unknown to him, and 3,000 were baptized — the same guy who Jesus said He would use to build His church. So if there’s any man on earth short of Jesus Christ Himself who could deliver a message powerful enough to persuade everyone within earshot, certainly it would be Simon Peter.
But not all believed. We’re told “many” believed; we’re not told “all” believed. Indeed, the Word of God is living and active; it is sharper than any double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), but we’re called merely to plant and water the seed, which is what Peter did the day he healed the crippled beggar at the temple gate called Beautiful. Not even Peter was called to make the seed grow and produce fruit of the Spirit. Only God can do that.
That’s all we’re called to do — be the best light we can be (Matthew 5:16), produce fruit in keeping with the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). So the next time you don’t see immediate growth from a seed you just watered, remember — it’s not about you. And be thankful to the One it is about. Be patient and wait upon the Lord. (Isaiah 40:31)
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I think like in the O.T. (eg., Abraham), we decide that God is not acting fast enough in our hands and instead of allowing Him to give the growth and provide the patience it takes for the growth that we take the bull by the horn and try and do it ourselves. To interrupt a seed growing by God may cause damage. Yet, despite Abraham’s interruption of God’s plan, God can still see His work to completion in spite of us.