The book of Exodus is about God bringing the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. He continually provided for them, even though they didn’t think He was going to and spent a lot of time fretting and complaining. In chapter 23, God reminded Moses that His purpose was to bring His people into the land He has promised them. There were lots of people inhabiting the land already, but God told Moses specifically how He would accomplish His purpose:
“I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run…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”.
Moses knew that God could do big things. He’d seen God work miracles in Egypt and he’d seen the waters roll back at the Red Sea. The settling of His people in this new land was another incredibly big thing, so big that when it came time to actually begin the process the Israelites chose not to trust God because of their fear and wound up staying in the dessert a lot longer. Yet, long before the people actually entered Canaan, God told Moses that He was going to do this incredibly big thing little by little. God was going to accomplish His purpose carefully, in time, little by little. He would do it this way because He determined it was best.
Recently, I’ve been reading the autobiography of George Muller. George Muller was a man who chose to trust God for absolutely everything. He started orphanages, but not by getting loans or raising pledges for support. He simply asked God, daily, to provide what was needed. Sometimes God brought in a large financial gift, but usually it was little amounts, pitifully small in comparison to the overwhelming needs. Most people would have decided that the project must not be God’s will, because almost every day seemed like a crisis situation. I kept thinking that at some point in the book, some rich person would donate their estate or something and the struggle for financial resources would be over. That didn’t happen. George Muller continued to pray. His words can encourage us: “Although all believers in the Lord Jesus are not called upon to establish orphan houses and schools for poor children and to trust in God for means, all believers should cast all their care upon Him who cares for them. We need not be anxiously concerned about anything…Truly, it is worth being poor and greatly tried in faith for the sake of having such precious, daily proof of the loving interest which our kind Father takes in everything that concerns us”. God chose to work through George Muller to accomplish big things, but He definitely did it little by little.
I often look for the “magic wand” answers that I think would resolve various situations, with big sweeping results and quick fixes. I get frustrated sometimes when God doesn’t work in the way that I think is obviously the best. The fact is, I’m not God and I don’t know what is best. He does. So it really comes down to trusting God and allowing Him to be God. I need to pray, to wait, and to let God work out His plan. And, I need to rest in the fact that sometimes, He will choose to do that little by little.
© January 2020 LivinginHisKingdom.com