Do you remember Gulliver’s Travels from your literature class? Or maybe you saw the pretty silly Jack Black movie recently. In either case you know that Gulliver is challenged with being extremely large in the land of the Lilliputians and extremely small in the land of Brobdingnag. In both countries, he is a celebrity/curiosity of sorts, but he is not successful in either country, neither as the All-Powerful nor as the No-Powerful!
Not many of us think of ourselves as all-powerful, although there are people we see in the news who do! No, our problem is more often seeing ourselves as small—powerless, without influence!
God wrote a letter once to a group of Christians that He described as small, but he had a much different perspective on their smallness! Listen to what He says:
8“I see what you’ve done. Now see what I’ve done. I’ve opened a door before you that no one can slam shut. You don’t have much strength, I know that; you used what you had to keep my Word. You didn’t deny me when times were rough. . . . 10“Because you kept my Word in passionate patience, I’ll keep you safe in the time of testing that will be here soon . . . (Revelation 3:8-10, The Message).
When we think of ourselves as little, it makes us either envious or afraid of what is large!
But doesn’t it seem to you like God always had a special place for little people, people who used what strength they had to obey—and God blessed that!. Maybe David and Goliath is the first story that comes to your mind (1 Samuel 17) or perhaps you think about how God took the large army of Gideon and whittled it down until it was a small army (Judges 6ff).
When we are small, we understand better that we are not really able to do things that only BIG can do. You see another word for BIG is GREAT! And only God is GREAT!
OK, so we can understand that we are small and He is Great, but instead of charging through open doors, we use our “small strength” to excuse ourselves . . . .
After all, I don’t have very much
After all, I really don’t know much
After all, I’ve never done that before
After all, I am . . . .alone!
After all, I am too young ….too old .. ..too poor ….too nervous . . . too afraid
To the church/Christian that is too small, He says, I have opened a door just for you that no one can close! Because you have obeyed, because you did nothing more than use all your pitiful little _______________( strength ,money, ideas, time, age, energy—fill in the blank!) I will bless you! You can go through the door that He has prepared and do something that NO ONE CAN STOP because God is Great!
So, to all of us who find ourselves inadequate, that’s GREAT! If you think of yourself as a pygmy Christian—GREAT! If you think your church is pretty weak—GREAT!
If you can just be obedient and use that little cupful of whatever God has given you to be obedient, then He will do with you what He will–and He will be GREAT!
Mark's Blog 