YOUR BEST ... SMALL BEGINNINGS

Sometimes I read something that is so true and clear that I want to share it with others.  Such is the devotional I received today by email.

The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches. [Matthew 13:31-32]

 

Often that is how God begins a great work. God starts with something so small no one usually notices and it grows into something no one could have imagined. Like a single family that grew into a mighty nation [Abraham].  Like a small cloud ‘as small as a man’s hand’ became a heavy rain when God revealed his power [Elijah]. Like a small army of three hundred men that defeated a bigger army to liberate the nation [Gideon]. Like a small stone in the hand of young man that could slay a giant so that “the whole world would know there is a God in Israel” [David]. Like a small group of followers of Jesus who multiplied themselves into a mighty force that “went into the entire world” to proclaim the Kingdom [Mt.28] that now has more than two billion Christians [The Apostles]. Like the two brothers in the 18^th century began to organize their recent converts into small groups that grew into the A Methodist church which has ministry in130 nations with more than 12 million members.

In a similar time period when human slavery was increasing with tragic speed a very small man in stature, so small some referred to him as a “shrimp” battled in the British parliament to bring down slavery. For more than twenty years William Wilberforce fought and finally won the moral war against slavery. His opponents were forced to admit that “though Wilberforce was a shrimp of a man in size that when he stood up to speak against slavery he became a whale”. It really is true, “every new beginning starts small”.

Though something may start small in God’s plan it will not remain that way. It may not grow in terms of numbers or fame as measured by the world’s values. But in God’s measurement it will be the perfect size to impact the lost and broken and forgotten in your place of ministry.

If we doubt this truth let’s remember at this special time of year that when Jesus came into the world he was just a small child born in a small manger in a small country, with a small population, with small influence on the world of His day and yet since the night the angels announced, ”Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. [Luke. 2:11] the world has never been the same.

So as we finish this year of 2009, let us thank God for His faithfulness in calling us to plant and nurture the seeds of life and celebrate what He has done through us.

Celebrating with each of you, I am your brother in Christ,

Al Vomsteeg

Dr. Al VomSteeg
Senior International Director,
International Leadership Institute