Dream Big, Live Small

I've been reading a book lately that encourages the reader to dream big. To ask God for and pray for things that only He can accomplish in our lives. And I've seen God do big things in my life in recent days, but right now I can't really think of anything big to pray for.

So I just opened up a blog that I frequently read and the writer was talking about her New Year's resolutions. She usually makes big, grand ones - like saving the world. But this year she felt God was telling her to think small, and that just didn't seem fun, or challenging - boring, really. Until she realized that what is planted small, and fed and watered and nurtured day by day, can grow into something big, something wonderful, something God-sized.

It reminded me of the verse, And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities' (Luke 19:17). God requires us to be faithful in the small things before we can do big things. And very often, it's the accumulation of the small, daily things that end up being something big.

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, (Deut. 10:12).

He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

Sometimes God does ask big things of us. And sometimes He takes our big dreams and makes them become realities. But sometimes all He asks of us is that we be faithful in the everyday, the small, the routine, the boring.

So until He gives me another big dream, I want to be faithful in what He has given me to do today.

Ruth

Ruth Schmidt is on full-time staff at America's Keswick, and grateful to be a daughter of the King.