Growing up I remember hearing and singing a song in which there was a line by which I've often been encouraged. It simply says, "Little is much when God is in it."
Isn't that the truth of Jesus feeding the multitude? The crowd of 5,000 men (and perhaps double or triple counting women and children) were hungry. The disciples had no food to give. Philip said there were so many people that 200 days worth of wages couldn't buy enough for each person just to get a little.
But there was a boy who had a small lunch. It wasn't much. It would have been a sufficient meal for himself, but not for this large crowd. His meager lunch consisted of 5 small loaves of bread and two fish. To every onlooker this little amount would not do. Yet little is much when God is in it. That small lunch in the hands of Jesus not only fed the entire crowd of thousands, not only fed them all they wanted, but it also provided a leftover that was at least twelve times larger than that with which He started.
Gideon also learned that little is much when God is in it. In yesterday's post I talked about God choosing Gideon to be His instrument of redemption for Israel. Gideon has 32,000 men in his army. And then God begins to make cuts to the team. In one swoop, 22,000 men left and went home. Of the ten thousand remaining, God made another cut that reduced the army from 10,000 to 300.
At this moment is when I stop and say, "Um, really God?"
God didn't need Gideon's numbers. God didn't rely on Gideon or his army's power. Little is much when God is in it. And that only magnifies the great work He does even more, since no man or woman can take the credit for it.
God said, "You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, 'My own strength has saved me.'"
The wisdom of God often uses the weak, feeble, small, foolish, and insignificant to the world. He is able to accomplish God-sized tasks with small objects and people.
Take a Daniel moment:
Isn't that the truth of Jesus feeding the multitude? The crowd of 5,000 men (and perhaps double or triple counting women and children) were hungry. The disciples had no food to give. Philip said there were so many people that 200 days worth of wages couldn't buy enough for each person just to get a little.
But there was a boy who had a small lunch. It wasn't much. It would have been a sufficient meal for himself, but not for this large crowd. His meager lunch consisted of 5 small loaves of bread and two fish. To every onlooker this little amount would not do. Yet little is much when God is in it. That small lunch in the hands of Jesus not only fed the entire crowd of thousands, not only fed them all they wanted, but it also provided a leftover that was at least twelve times larger than that with which He started.
Gideon also learned that little is much when God is in it. In yesterday's post I talked about God choosing Gideon to be His instrument of redemption for Israel. Gideon has 32,000 men in his army. And then God begins to make cuts to the team. In one swoop, 22,000 men left and went home. Of the ten thousand remaining, God made another cut that reduced the army from 10,000 to 300.
At this moment is when I stop and say, "Um, really God?"
God didn't need Gideon's numbers. God didn't rely on Gideon or his army's power. Little is much when God is in it. And that only magnifies the great work He does even more, since no man or woman can take the credit for it.
God said, "You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, 'My own strength has saved me.'"
The wisdom of God often uses the weak, feeble, small, foolish, and insignificant to the world. He is able to accomplish God-sized tasks with small objects and people.
Take a Daniel moment:
- Praise God for His wisdom that cuts against the wisdom of men.
- Ask God for faith to follow Him when His numbers don't match ours.
- Pray for Refuge Church to be like Gideon's 300; empowered by God for a great work regardless of size.
- Surrender yourself to be one of Gideon's 300 that God will use to display and declare His glory and good news.
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