Ok, don’t judge me on my gardening skills in what you’re about to read. My mother and grandmother are, in my opinion, expert botanists, and the apple just fell far from the tree on that when it comes to me!

The other day, I went out for a jog and passed my mailbox with more attention than I’ve given it in awhile. When I did, all the sudden I noticed and really looked at the beautiful bush that surrounds the stem of our mailbox. The bush was high and wide, and covered with beautiful roses that have grown on it in the last few weeks.

I stopped, a little befuddled. I haven’t paid one bit of attention to this plant, and here it is growing fast and strong, no thanks to me! The weather in the past few months has been harsh and unpredictable, and to think that this plant kept on going without one bit of care from me was astounding. These roses have grown, flourished and bloomed, and I did nothing.

I. did. nothing.

As I started back into my jog after staring at the roses in awe, I was hit with the beautiful reminder of the similarity in this story and God’s grace working in our lives.

In Matthew 6, Jesus tells his disciples to observe the growth of the flowers of the field. He noted that they don’t toil or labor whatsoever, and yet not even the robes of the great king Solomon could compare with their beauty. Anything you can dress yourself with in your human wisdom or your many self-made efforts can never do what God can effortlessly accomplish on your behalf when you let Him do the job and don’t try to do it for him.

Have you ever tried to accomplish a task with a trying-to-be-helpful 1-year-old wanting to assist you? Every morning I do my makeup, Rosie comes and sits in my lap, very much wanting to be an active participant in the process. She is so sweet to try to help, but it goes so much quicker and easier—and not to mention looks much better—when I can do it myself.

We do that with God all the time. He is waiting, wanting, and willing to work His handiwork in our lives—in the way that we have been praying and asking Him too, no less!—and we foil His attempts as we grow impatient and rush in to do it our way. Our situations end up looking clown-like, compared to the beauty status they could have if we had ‘let the professional’ do it. And how many stories in the Bible does God give us that tell this same account!

The Message translation of Isaiah 64:7 says our best efforts are the same as grease-stained rags to a God Who is described in the verses right before this as One Who works in a way that no eye has seen or ear has heard all that He has for those who wait for Him.

Are you waiting, and letting that God work in your situation? Or are you getting in a hurry, and putting your much-less-capable hands around it.

Take it from this Martha personality with a Mary heart, it is very tempting so many times to try to get out my rags and start-a-scrubbin’. All it does is delay God’s attempts on my behalf. Just like I do with my one-year-old, He has to step back and just amusingly and lovingly watch me until I’m done, when He can finally come in and complete the work He is trying to do for me.

1 Corinthians 3:7 says that it is not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process, but God, Who makes things grow. God is the one that makes things strong and prosper—not us! Things like your life. Things like your plans. Things like your dreams. The God Who breathes life into your problems and lifeless circumstances.

In whatever you are endeavoring to do through God with your life—however good, true, and righteous—you must let Him be the one who drives it. We must let His capable hands take hold of the steering wheel of situations we thought we could control better. We can’t; and that should relieve us. Because He is ever waiting and ready to act with goodness on our behalf when we simply yield to faith in trusting His timing, His methods, and His heart.

Your dreams and plans really aren’t even yours in the first place. God is the one who puts things in our hearts and causes them to flourish and produce. Why try to make things happen on your own? If He put those dreams there, then they are important enough for Him to bring them to pass in your life.

What He instructs us to do is rest, trust, expect, prepare, wait, ponder, rejoice. But work, toil, and labor are not in any of the instructions He left us. Change your focus to that today, and let God grow the roses in the garden of your life. If you don’t, it might be a pretty garden around a mailbox. If you do, it can be a thing of beauty that blesses many, and causes people to come and behold from all around.

“The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Psalm 118:23