A Companion Devotional to ‘Meager Beginnings’

for who has despised the day of small things? the NIV renders this: who dares despise the day of small things?

Another version of the Bible renders this:
Never Despise a meager beginning.
In like fashion to how the angel came to Zachariah and told him not to despise the small progress that was being made on the temple, this verse can also encourage us to remember that sometimes there is a season of meager beginnings.

I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely guilty of letting my perfectionist tendencies, and my worry about how little I know, or can do, how small the outcome might be, or how minuscule the affect the finished product will have, get in the way of action.

we live in a world that often suffers from one of two extremes, either we are celebrating failure because it’s “brave”(a word that has been sadly misused and twisted into a meaning that is completely unworthy if this noble word) OR we are encouraged to push ourselves beyond the point of physical and emotional damage and told to suck it up and move on because “it’s ALL about attitude (for example when concerning symptoms are visible but overlooked, and a person’s actual and true needs are deemed unimportant in the name of positivity and attitude)
I submit to you that there is truth to both views and there is danger in both extremes.

how often in the Bible are we reminded that sometimes we have to just dig in and do something even if we don’t really want to or feel like it?
1 Samuel 15:22
Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to harken (to listen) than the fat of rams.

Proverbs 16:3 Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established also.

I want to do it…but I’m scared.
O’ how often I have allowed this obstacle to keep me from pursuing my Interests, from finishing the things that I start, from completing my goals, and worst of all…from going after the things that God has put on my heart to pursue.

sometimes we have to step into a new pursuit without having all the answers, sometimes God calls us to do something that scares us, sometimes we have to give it all we have, even if our outcome seems small, meager, or insignificant.
We are called to not despise the day of small things, but to give our best and leave the results up to our Lord.

Our Hero’s of the faith were no strangers, not only to meager beginnings, but also to not having all the answers when they started out on a mission God called them to.

Hebrews 11:8-10
Abraham was called to start sojourning, without being given a destination, and only told that when he got there that would be the land that he was given for an inheritance.
This would be similar to being told to pack up your family and everything you own in a car, and maybe a moving truck, and start out on the road, with no direction about which way you’re supposed to go, or where you’re supposed to live or work when you get there.

Judges 6:11
Gideon was literally hiding behind a winepress threshing wheat when the angel came to him, and told him that he would be the one to drive out the invading army.
This would be similar to a local farmers son suddenly being picked to be the Commander of troops to push back and eradicate an army the size if the Third Reich from invading the U.S.

sometimes we need to be uncertain of the outcome, so that we are not tempted to give credit for victory, to anyone but God.
Often The Lord uses situations like that to bring the glory and honor to himself, so that others will see our good works and glorify our father in heaven, and so that the awesomeness of our Lord and Savior, will bring people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

one final thought:

Oh what a true gift it is, that our heavenly Father uses us in our most unworthy state. How wonderful to know that our heroes of the faith who had no more information than we do sometimes in our walk, were still used mightily by the Lord.
It gives me great hope to know that no matter how meager the beginning, God can and will use it for His glory.