Zechariah 4:6, 10 – “Then He said to me, ‘This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.’ … For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”

CYT conferences have a way of challenging and convicting my faith in such deep ways. This began in 2010 at my first EXPO, and ten years later, at the most recent one this weekend, it continued to challenge me.

This time around, we were asked what impossible thing we were going to trust God for this year, and I said that at least two branches that don’t have a HYPE would start one by the end of the year. And lo and behold, at that very conference, I talked to people from three branches that don’t have a HYPE who were interested in getting one started.

I was so convicted about my lack of faith to trust God for the impossible things that I can’t do on my own. I had been too afraid to ask for more than two because I didn’t think it would happen. I had gotten to a place where I thought that because it hadn’t happened yet, I believed that it never would.

But one of our speakers at this conference encouraged us not to “despise the day of small things” as it says in Zechariah, because on the days when it seems like nothing is happening, God is working. When we don’t have success the way we want it, we have to trust that God is still at work. When we feel discouraged because this day is just like yesterday, we have to believe that God’s ways are on a different timetable than ours.

And perhaps in that “day of small things,” God is preparing the very person He’s going to use to answer your prayers, and you just don’t know it yet.

Maybe all those “days of small things” – all those tired days of praying for things you’re barely hoping for anymore – maybe those will add up to the one-day answer that suddenly strikes you big in the face. And you look back and see that God was at work in dozens of ways that you couldn’t see at the time.

Or maybe those “days of small things” – being faithful in the routine, the mundane, the ordinary – will add up to a very big lifetime of serving God and drawing nearer to Him through it all.

How I need to learn not to limit God to what I think is possible and trust Him to do way more than I could ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). I need to give Him what I have – what’s already in the house – my one jar of oil and my loaves and fishes – and watch Him make a banquet out of it.

I need to learn to pray boldly in faith for the big and impossible things, knowing that God will answer in His timing and in His ways. All He asks is the faith of a mustard seed – one small grain with which He can do much more than I can.

I need to also lift my eyes above the distractions and be faithful in what He’s given me – to walk forward and do what I’m able to and trust that God will use that in great ways. And as I work on what He’s given me this day, I can know that I’m carrying out His work, even if it seems insignificant at the time.

These “days of small things” – answering emails, cleaning the house, going to work, changing diapers, correcting children, making sales, writing up reports, shoveling snow, making lunches – all of these are not to be despised.

Someday we will rejoice when we see their fruition – when we see what God did through them by His Spirit.

This is the life He’s given us to live. The life He’s called us to make a difference in for His glory. The life that indeed might feel small. But which can be used for greater things when we trust the One with the eternal design.

 

Father, teach me to pray more deeply,

Trust You more diligently,

Focus more consciously,

And work more faithfully

For Your Kingdom

And Your glory.

 

Photo by Marion Botella on Unsplash.