Little by Little
Last month, we hosted our Annual Business Meeting at Christian Chapel. It’s a time for us to review our financial statements from the previous year and select new deacons to serve as leaders in our church. It is also a time for us to reflect on God’s gracious provision for our community.
As I prepared for our meeting, I reviewed my notes from the previous 10-12 Annual Business Meetings. I noticed that each year, we celebrated God’s faithfulness through our Kingdom Builders giving, various ministry initiatives, building projects, the addition of worship services, salvations, baptisms, the sending out of missionaries, and a growing church community. Each year, the opportunities that we encountered seemed big at the time. God has led us through so many different seasons. As I read through those old notes, I was struck by how much of what seemed big, scary, or exciting in our past now seemed small when compared to the opportunities for ministry and investment that God is bringing to us today.
It was a reminder that God always uses today to prepare us for tomorrow. Our 50 years as a local church taught us that when we are faithful with what God gives us today, he will often trust us with more tomorrow. At our Annual Business Meeting, I shared how going through those old notes reminded me of what God spoke to the Israelites just before he led them into the Promised Land. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. (Exodus 23:29-30).
Looking back at what God has done should fill us with faith and expectation for what he is going to do. As a church and as individuals, we believe that God is leading us little by little. He gives us enough to keep us occupied and enough to keep us dependent on him. As we are faithful with a few things, he then gives us more to steward. It should fill us with excitement when we consider that in a matter of months, years, or decades, we will look back at this season of life and see how these were small things that God was using to prepare us for even bigger things!
