Leave the Result to the Lord

We have to do everything as if we do it to the Lord (Eph. 6:5-8). This has been mentioned by many preachers and commentators in the sense that we have to do everything faithfully out of sincere heart. It is an absolutely right and valuable lesson. It is a message of the passage from an angle; it looks at the process of a work. There may be other angles from which we can look at the passage. One of them lets us look at the result of our works instead of the process, which the popular view looks at.

If we really do everything as we do it to the Lord, we will do our best in the process and then, as for the result, we will leave it to the Lord. We have to trust in him rather than in what we have done and leave the result to him. It is for two reasons. First it is because it is God who determines the result. It is not people who actually determine the result, even if it seems so. Even in a situation when people judge the result, it is not they who ultimately determine it but God. People prone to think it is the people who have the power to determine it but what the powerful people do is just what humans can perceive. However, there are too many factors that are not known to human judges. For example, it is not possible for a human judge to know what is happening psychologically in a competitor during the competition. What he knows is merely a part of the result. The only One who knows everything of a person and determines the result ultimately is God. As we do anything to the Lord, we have to acknowledge this sovereignty of him.

Second reason that we have to leave the result to the Lord is because it is God who knows what the best for us is. Humans tend to think it is the best to get what they desire right now. Like human judges, however, our judgment is just according to limited information and also to our desires. Humans tend not to take everything into consideration even for our good, including especially, our spiritual welfare. Probably there are things humans can never judge rightly as they are in the flesh. Suffering for righteousness’ sake could be an example. Therefore, too many times we do not know what the best for us is; we just assume what we desire is the best for us. God is different; he knows everything about us and takes it into consideration. Having considered everything of us, he determines what the best for us is and gives it to us. Therefore, as we have done our best as if we did it to the Lord, we accept the result as the best gift for us from God. This involves our attitude to the failure, which means the result we do not want.

We should not be disappointed or frustrated at any unwanted or undesirable result. Furthermore, we have to accept the undesirable result with joy and even with gratitude to God. It is because, as we discussed, it is the best for us and God gave it to us for our best good. This is the attitude of those who have done a work to the Lord but yet had undesirable results. The result may lead them into severe agony, unbearable hardship, or terrible suffering. Nevertheless, it is the best gift of God who loves us and knows how to give good things to his children (Matt. 7:11). It is one of the most difficult things to all human beings to have this humility before God and in life. It is what only our Lord Jesus Christ did perfectly. As he did everything on earth toward God who sent him and faced and accepted his severe paths on this earth with joy and gratitude, we, as his followers, are to (try to) do the same. We are to rejoice whatever the result may be, believing it is the best gift from God and trusting that he will not forget what we are going through to do his will. It signifies faith in God. Salvation may be, therefore, the reward for those who live this tough earthly life in the faith that results in such humble and obedient attitude.