“The LORD said to Gideon, “the people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘my hand has saved me.'” – Judges 7:2
This is a stellar verse. We often think about “bigger is better,” but with the LORD, little is much when God is in it. I think that’s the lyrics of a song by Matthew West. And it’s true!
Little is much when God’s in it. Of course, God is glorified in a big group just as much as a little group. He can use both. However, we ought not to think that He is more prone to use a big group of people more than a small group. You can apply this to Churches, families, weather you have one kid or 10 kids, 10 members or 1,000 members. God likes to defeat the enemy by unlikely odds, even impossible odds.
Has God changed? I think that we often think that He has, like He can’t work in a Gideon type of way or He won’t work in this way again.
We are too often Godly pessimists. We assume that the great deeds of the Lord recorded in the Bible were only for then but not for now. Of course, we can’t wave the desirable historical records of the Bible like a wand in hand and formula in our mouth. Gideon and his 300 men is not an abracadabra spell that we can duplicate today.
Nevertheless, God still works in these great small ways. The smaller, the more potential there is for the greater, to see God’s inexplicable undeniable glory and power…Him not us!
You wonder why we always want the big in life when God clearly shows that He uses small entities, small groups, small people and small methods in order to attain supernatural results.
Let God choose how He wants to win the battle in our life, in our town, overcome problems in our Church, etc…He might use the big to accomplish the gigantic. He sometimes does, but don’t forget that God has not changed from Old Testament to New Testament. He is glorified in a neat and profound way when He uses the small to accomplish the big.
Indeed, 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 says the same thing that God says to Gideon:
“26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”
You see, God still works in the same way as He did to Gideon. He works in ways that shows without a shadow of a doubt that He is working, working through us.
Let us not get this backwards. We don’t work through God but He works through us. And that’s why we need the Holy Spirit to help us do anything. He helps us help Him.
“And if God is for us, who can be against us” as Romans 8 says. If we would only think with this mentality.
To have God on our side (or rather, us on God’s side) = everything. But to have the company of the whole world = nothing compared the presence of God that dwells in us.
As 2 Corinthians 6:10 says, “as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”
That’s true when we know the LORD & have the Lord.
Even more, to feel as if we have nothing, that we are small, despised, weak, underrated, overcome & outnumbered is God’s choice method for showing off His glory!
As 2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
In this way, staying small is a safeguard against pride and divine theft, stealing the glory of God.
I can relate to this because I feel small in many ways, not to throw a pity party, but in order to praise God’s glory.
The First Baptist Church is much bigger than we were when I came here to this town 5 years ago. We are balanced with the young to the old, families with widows, etc… Friendships are growing. Kids are running! Babies are crying! It’s a wonderful sound and I still can hardly believe what God has done and still is doing.
On top of that, there is a reputation building in this town of this local Body of Christ. More people know that we exist and that’s a start.
YET, I still feel like we’re small (small is relative, I know!), and there is always a desire to see more added to God’s Kingdom, or I often ask God my motivations: do I just want BIGGER as if bigger is better?
As a pastor of a Church, discerning my motives is always tricky. Do I want our Church to grow because I want success in my job or do I want God’s Church to grow because I want glory going to God, His Kingdom growing and people rescued from Satan to Jesus?
It’s not so easy to discern and to be perfectly honest, I’m never quite sure exactly what my motives are except that I need the blood of Jesus to wash over all of them!
Because I can’t discern my motives exactly except for in some situations when God reveals pride in my life, I always conclude and walk forward in ministry with the firm belief that God loves people more than I do.
However much I really love them, I’m not quite sure; however much I want Church growth for the right reasons, I’m not sure. But I am amazed that God doesn’t want Kingdom growth for Kingdom growth sake. He wants it for His glory and for our good.
Therefore, I pray that, just as God does with Gideon, however God works in this town and in my life and my families life, that He would work in such a way like Judges 7:2 says, “lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘my hand has saved me.'”
Protect me from boasting over God. It’s far too possible and likely, actually certain, if God doesn’t work in a way where I can’t deny that it was Him and not I, then I’ll boast over God. God forbid.
Therefore, in some ways, I pray that this Church would stay small and that God would work victory in bigger than big ways in the world through this tiny Church (we’re about 40-50 at this point. Again, I know size is relative).
And perhaps you can pray or at least accept with thanksgiving that this or that part of your life remains small so that God can work powerfully in a way where He shows off His power and you give Him glory.
Great things come in small packages!