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This devotion pairs with this weekend’s Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.
All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers … the company of persons was in all about 120.” (Acts 1:14, 15b).
It’s tempting to despise small beginnings. Looking from the outside, that’s what the early Jesus movement was. There was the original inner core of 12 disciples, but one of them had betrayed Jesus, and had since committed suicide. So, they were down to 11 now.
There were also some women who had followed Jesus to Jerusalem, but as He was being crucified, they watched helplessly from a distance. Along with them, there were others on the margins, including Jesus’ own half-brothers, who has once despised His messianic claims (see John 7:5).
His mom was there, too. All in all, there were about 120 people. And as appearances go, they weren’t much of anything.
But Jesus had risen from the dead to make them something. He said that they would become His witnesses to the ends of the earth. They didn’t need to know when, or how, exactly this would happen. It was enough for them to know that Jesus had, in fact, come from God and that He was going back to God, and one day He would return to put the world right again.
So, in the meantime, they devoted themselves to reading the Bible and to prayer. And as best they knew how, they took small steps forward toward the future into which Jesus was calling them. It wasn’t much, but it was a beginning.
“Do not despise these small beginnings” (Zechariah 4:10a, New Living Translation). The saying comes from the prophet Zechariah, who spoke God’s Word to God’s people about 500 years earlier. God’s people had returned from exile, and as they waited for God’s Messiah, the Christ, to come, they began to rebuild their lives. But some days they could not see what difference they were making. They didn’t feel like their small efforts would ever be enough.
So, God gave Zechariah a message to share with the leader of the people at that time, a man named Zerubbabel (see Haggai 2:21-23). Zerubbabel could see the obstacles against God’s people piled up like a mountain when Zechariah gave him a message: “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will become a level plain before him! And when Zerubbabel sets the final stone of the Temple in place, the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’ Then another message came … from the Lord: “… Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin” (Zechariah 4:6b-8, 10a, NLT).
When God looks at our small beginnings, He doesn’t see what we see. God sees small change compounded into eternity. God sees the baby steps of His children in whom He delights. God sees the mural He’s making from our feeble efforts to form the perfect picture of His Son.
WE PRAY: Dear Father, help me to know Your joy in seeing the work begin. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker for The Lutheran Hour.
Reflection Questions:
- In everyday life, are there other examples of small efforts compounded over time?
- When have you been tempted to despise small beginnings?
- Why might God delight in starting with what is small and despised? See 1 Corinthians 1:26-31.
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