”I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” — 1 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV)
The first two stops on this journey were about sitting. We sat down beside Mary at the feet of Jesus and heard Him name the one thing that can’t be taken away. Then we opened our empty hands and let the God of hope fill us — because you were never meant to be your own source.
But here is the honest question a woman eventually asks from that quiet place: I’ve been filled. Now what do I do with my hands?
You rise. You serve. You go back to the family, the work, the ministry, the long faithful list. “At His feet” was always meant to lead to “in His service.” The danger Jesus warned Martha about was never the serving — it was the drifting: serving so hard and so long that you quietly slip back into striving, back into carrying an outcome that was never yours to carry.
Paul writes to a church doing exactly that. Corinth had split into fan clubs — I follow Paul, I follow Apollos — arguing over whose leader mattered most, as if the growth of the church depended on the polish of the person up front. And Paul lowers the temperature with one of the most freeing sentences in all of Scripture: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7)
Read that slowly, friend, because it divides the labor for you. You have a part. God has a part. And they are not the same part.
Your part is to plant and to water. To do the next faithful thing in front of you — the prayer, the meal, the hard conversation, the work done well. To show up and be faithful. That is the whole of your assignment.
God’s part is the growth. And the growth was never yours. You cannot make a seed sprout. You cannot force a heart to change, a child to come home, a ministry to bear fruit, or a season to turn on your schedule. You were never asked to. Somewhere in the striving, most of us picked up a job God never handed us — the job of guaranteeing the outcome — and then wondered why serving felt so heavy. It felt heavy because we were carrying His part.
Set it down. One plants, another waters, but God alone gives the growth.
And Paul says one more thing you need, because it guards you from building the wrong way. Some things are built for show — the flash, the applause, the impressive front — and what is built on show burns away under fire and time. But “no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:11) What is built on Him — quietly, faithfully, out of the overflow instead of the striving — is the one thing still standing when the smoke clears.
So this week, do your part and only your part. Plant. Water. Serve from the fullness He gave you at His feet. And when you feel the old weight creeping back — the need to force it, fix it, make it grow — gently hand that part back to the only One who was ever holding it.
Do your part. Build on Him. And let God give the growth.
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This post is part of the At His Feet, In His Service journey — a Mary and Martha walk into rest and mission, for women who love God and are weary of running on empty. If you’re ready to serve from the overflow instead of the striving, come walk it with us. We’d love to have you in the community, where we’re learning together to do our faithful part and trust God with the rest. Join us at https://awakewomensministry.com.