Small Parts Are Largely Valuable
Do you ever feel like your contribution to God’s Kingdom can’t amount to much? Historically, there have been some towering figures in Christendom. Names like Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley come to mind.
In the last 100 years, the Church and the world have been blessed by the likes of Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, C. S. Lewis, Charles Swindoll, and John MacArthur.
With these heavy hitters who historically had, and still have, such blessed ministries, what can I expect to accomplish by comparison? A lot, according to God’s word. Every person who has come into relationship with God through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross has a God-given role for furthering God’s Kingdom. God has chosen people like you and me to be seed planters. It is not visibility, but faithfulness in alignment with God’s eternal plan, that creates impact.
In Matthew 13:31-33, Jesus tells us these parables to help us understand: He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
Although God’s Kingdom is in the process of being realized in full, it has been small and largely invisible from its inception within a fallen world. Yet like a tiny mustard seed, with God’s blessing, it outgrows everything else. Like a small bit of yeast, it slowly permeates everything. Small, slow, and inevitable.
Take heart. As we remain faithful, we have confidence that our seemingly small parts are largely valuable in God’s economy, the only one that will last. We have eternity to enjoy God’s Kingdom once it has been fully realized. But right now, we have the opportunity to invest in that Kingdom by faith as God gives us the means and ability. That investment may look small and invisible to the world, but God doesn’t evaluate based on human standards. He searches the heart. Once we are in Christ, our faithfulness in small things will yield spiritual fruit that God values and uses, and when God’s plan comes to complete fruition, we will celebrate how God used even people like us exponentially to further his Kingdom.
In Christ,
Chris Heinss
