4–5 minute read
Prefer to watch or listen? Watch Episode 29 on YouTube or listen on Spotify
What happens when you pray, work hard, and pursue something good—but the results still don't come?
About eighteen months ago, I started building a business on the side while working full-time, using nights and weekends.
I wanted to improve our family's financial situation, pay down debt, and create more opportunities. As a husband and father of six, providing for my family matters deeply to me.
So I prayed about it. I asked God for provision and opportunity. Then, when things did not happen as quickly as I hoped, I started taking matters into my own hands, hoping God would bless what I was building.
I learned new skills, made mistakes, changed direction, and kept going.
Eighteen months later, the results have not been what I hoped for.
I have a job, we have a home, and God has provided for our family in many ways. This is not a story about everything going wrong.
Somewhere along the way, I started expecting God to give me the outcome I had already decided I wanted. It was almost as if I were saying, “Lord, I am doing something good. I am working hard for my family. Surely You are going to bless this the way I expect, right?”
When the results did not come, I wondered what had gone wrong.
But perhaps I needed to ask a deeper question: Was I trusting God with the outcome, or expecting Him to approve the outcome I had already chosen?
What Hard Work Cannot Control
My belief in taking responsibility goes back to when I was about fifteen years old, growing up in Mexico and playing basketball.
After an exhausting practice, our coach gathered us together and gave us three questions:
1. What do you want?
2. What do you have?
3. What can you do about it?
Those questions shaped how I approached basketball, education, my decision to come to the United States, my career, and other challenges. They taught me to act instead of waiting for perfect circumstances.
But those questions taught me how to take responsibility. They did not teach me how to surrender the result.
I can do everything within my responsibility and still not control what happens next.
Prepare the Horse
Proverbs 21:31 says:
“The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord.”
The horse still has to be trained and prepared. That requires work and discipline. But preparation does not guarantee victory.
I am responsible for preparing the horse. The outcome belongs to God.
Before my dad passed away, he wrote me a letter that included Ecclesiastes 9:10: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.” I have carried those words ever since. They remind me to give my best to what God places in front of me.
Giving my best, however, does not mean I get to determine the result.
Perhaps that is where hard work and faith meet: I prepare the horse, give my best, and trust God with what happens next.
Faithful Work or Anxious Striving?
Psalm 127 describes rising early, staying up late, and eating “the bread of anxious toil.” I know what that feels like—squeezing another hour from the day or sitting with my family while my mind remains on unfinished work.
It makes me ask: Am I working faithfully, or am I working as though everything depends on me?
Those are not the same thing.
I can work hard because I want to be responsible. I can also work hard because I am afraid of what will happen if I stop. That is where diligence becomes anxious striving.
I still do not know what will happen with the business. Maybe it will succeed later than I expected. Maybe it will move in a different direction. My story is still unfolding.
But I am learning that surrender is not giving up. It is recognizing what belongs to me, doing it faithfully, and trusting God with what I cannot control.
Faithfulness is not measured only by the results we can see.
Do what you can with what you have. Give it your best. Prepare the horse—and trust God with the victory.
This article was adapted from Episode 29 of the Ordinary Heroes Podcast. Watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify
