"If you're too big for the small things, you're too small for the big things."
Quote of the Day - "If you're too big for the small things, you're too small for the big things." — Ray Mileur
Called by God, Anne and I probably look like a small ministry to the world.
We don’t have a large staff. There aren’t television cameras following us around. Most days aren’t spent standing behind a pulpit or speaking to a crowd.
Most days are much quieter than that.
They’re filled with phone calls, kitchen-table prayers, hospital visits, messages from people who are hurting, conversations in parking lots, and prayers whispered with someone who may never tell another soul what they were going through.
They’re the moments nobody photographs.
Nobody applauds.
Nobody posts about them.
But over the years, Anne and I have learned something:
God often does His biggest work in the smallest moments.
We live in a world that measures importance by numbers.
How many people attended?
How many followers do you have?
How many people watched?
How many people know your name?
But Jesus never seemed particularly impressed with numbers.
He noticed individuals.
He stopped for one blind man beside the road.
He spoke with one woman at a well.
He welcomed children others considered an interruption.
He noticed Zacchaeus sitting in a tree.
He touched the leper everyone else avoided.
He stopped in the middle of a crowd because one hurting woman had reached out to touch His garment.
Jesus was never too important for one person.
And if we are following Him, neither should we be.
Sometimes we imagine that God is preparing us for something “bigger,” when the truth may be that the person standing in front of us is the big thing.
That phone call may be the assignment.
That hospital room may be the mission field.
That lonely person may be the congregation God has given us for the next twenty minutes.
That quiet prayer prayed with trembling hands may accomplish more in the Kingdom of God than anything done on a stage.
The danger comes when we begin believing certain acts of service are beneath us.
When we start thinking, Someone else can handle that.
When we begin looking for something more visible, more exciting, or more important.
But faithfulness doesn’t work that way.
Scripture reminds us:
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” — Luke 16:10
God watches how we handle the little things.
The unnoticed things.
The inconvenient things.
The things that offer no recognition in return.
Anyone can serve when people are watching.
Character is revealed when nobody is.
I have come to believe that some of the greatest moments of ministry will never appear in a biography.
They happen quietly.
Someone calls late at night because they are afraid.
A family sits beside a hospital bed and needs someone to pray.
A grieving widow needs someone to listen.
A discouraged brother or sister needs to hear, “I’m praying for you.”
A stranger needs kindness.
A hurting person needs someone willing to sit beside them for a few minutes and remind them that God has not forgotten them.
Those moments may seem small.
Heaven may see them very differently.
Jesus said that even giving a cup of cold water in His name matters to God.
Think about that.
A cup of water.
Not a crusade.
Not a sermon.
Not a building.
Not a platform.
A cup of water.
The Kingdom of God has always advanced through ordinary people faithfully doing ordinary things in the name of an extraordinary Savior.
So I never want to become too important to answer the phone.
Too busy to pray.
Too accomplished to visit the hurting.
Too recognized to sit quietly with someone who needs a friend.
Too spiritual to wash feet.
Because the moment I become too big for the small things, I have become too small for the things that truly matter.
So today, don’t overlook the little opportunities God places in front of you.
Make the call.
Send the message.
Say the prayer.
Visit the hospital.
Check on the neighbor.
Encourage the discouraged.
Sit with the lonely.
Listen longer than you planned.
Offer the cup of cold water.
You may never know what God does with that moment.
And that’s all right.
We are not called to make every moment impressive.
We are called to be faithful.
One prayer at a time.
One person at a time.
One act of kindness at a time.
One quiet step of obedience at a time.
Those “small” things?
That is where faithfulness grows.
And very often, that is where the biggest work of God begins.
The Lord be with you.
In His love,
— ray mileur