Faith
A Small Round Thing
“Dynamite comes in small packages”
“I may be small but I am mighty.”
Sound familiar? Have you ever waited on God for a miracle, only for the miracle to arrive in a different way than you expected?
“Think outside the box,” we hear this all over the corporate world. I’ve attended class after class learning how to use my imagination or clear my thought processes of the way we’ve always done things, in order to develop a new and better way. Upper management will tell you, by thinking outside of the box, you will create new ideas that will enhance productivity and profitability. This is great for the corporate world.
So, if it is so easy to do, with just a little bit of training, why can we not do it in the spiritual realm?
Scenario #1:
A business owner installs a suggestion box, and the employees voiced their complaints about the vending machine prices were too high. So, without explanation, the owner goes in on Monday morning and has all of them removed, only to have utter chaos on his hands. Suddenly he has a bunch of hungry employees who now think the prices were not so bad after all.
The employees scream, “Do you expect us to work all day without food? We can go elsewhere and work and get this kind of treatment.”
You feel bad for their hunger, so you hire a catering service to set up in front of your business and you pay for a free lunch for each of your employees. Not just once, but every day they work. Now this is thinking outside of the box.
Scenario #2:
A business owner of a large company receives several complaints from employees about the water from the drinking fountain taste bitter. So, the owner goes in on Monday Morning and has the water fountains shut down and purchases a new refrigerator for the break room and fills it with bottled water that will be stocked daily. After a small uproar over the fountain being shut down, they learn that the water in the refrigerator is supplied for each employee for free. All they have to do is open the door and take a bottle of water. Now this is thinking outside the box.
We could go through many different scenarios, and come up with many different ways to improve productivity in the business place. So, what about in our personal lives and our walk with Christ?
We could sit down and brainstorm and come up with many ways that God could answer our prayers, (which many of us have done), or we could simply open our hearts and minds and allow God to work outside of the box of our preconceived ideas. One of the problems is that we have taken the ‘think outside the box’ theory and applied it to our walk with Christ. Instead of leaving the whiteboard clear for God to be creative, we have called the board together or the family together, and brainstormed about ways God can use us or move in our lives or supply the need.
When all the time I believe God is saying, “remove the boundaries from your thinking process and see that your answer might just be in the small round thing.”
You see God wants to do miraculous things in our lives. I have seen miracles take place in my family. My brother died once, from a broken neck and God brought him back to life. My mother was healed of cancer when the doctors had said it would kill her in a short time. Over and over, I can tell you about miracles that took place within my family. And many will tell you today that God doesn’t move like this anymore. Rubbish, God is still moving! And I believe that He is just waiting for us to open our hearts and minds, and clear our thoughts of all preconceived ideas of how He can or might be willing to move to bring the miracle so desperately needed today.
Let’s look at the children of Israel for a moment. They had been delivered from their bondage, and then directed to a place where they were boxed in, with walls, water and the enemy. And they started to complain, but in spite of their complaints, God delivered them!! Of course it didn’t happen like they thought it should happen. I can hear the congregation now.
Congregation: “Brother Moses says this is God. Well if he’d listened to us, we would have taken the road back there that was easier. How in the world does he expect us to get across that water? We can’t turn around, we can’t go left or right. He brought us here to be slaughtered by the enemy. Did we even tell him we wanted to leave? I mean back in Egypt at least we had our homes. All we wanted God to do was relieve our burden. And all the congregation say Amen!” (Sound familiar?)
Now they are on the other side of the Red Sea, and they have rejoiced over the miracle with singing, shouting, and praising! But of course, once the excitement wore down, they realized they were hungry and there was nothing to eat. Exodus 16:3 for you have brought forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
Oh man, can you just imagine how Moses must have felt. Here he is, leading these people as God directed, and he just can’t seem to keep everyone happy. Every time he turns around someone is complaining about something. But look at what God spoke to Moses, (vs. 12) I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, at even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.
You see, ultimately God was trying to get them to understand that He was their God, He was their Deliverer and He would be their Provider. He was trying to show them something outside of the box. But if you study the story of the Children of Israel, whenever things became a bit rough, or they were hungry, or thirsty, immediately they decided Egypt was a better place.
Now some of you wag your heads at this group of people and wonder how they could have found room for complaint over hunger, after they had just went through the Red Sea experience. I mean, God delivered them in a BIG miraculous way, and here they found themselves hungry and thought God had brought them there to die. From our perspective it’s quite obvious that God wouldn’t have gone through the splitting of the Red Sea to get them to the other side and starve them to death. That’s not how God works.
But even as they were shaking the dust from their robes, from the dry ground of the Red Sea, they felt the hunger pains and began to cry out in despair. Now look at what God does: And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. (Vs. 13-14)
It is interesting to note, they didn’t ask what the quail was. They recognized the fowl as meat just as God had promised. But vs. 15 says that they knew not what it was, speaking of the small round thing that lay on the ground. Why would they? God brought their food in a package they did not recognize.
Now isn’t that just like God? Here they were hungry and He brought them food in a miraculous way. You might want to notice that God didn’t plant a herd of buffalo around the camp so that they would have buffalo steak every day, nor does it say they had catfish and friend potatoes, but the Word does say: this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. (Vs. 15)
Oh we are quick to say we are nothing like the Children of Israel. But we might want to rethink that. We are all guilty of limiting God. Perhaps even today, you may be in need of a miracle in your finances, or perhaps you have a child that has gone astray. Maybe your cupboards are empty, and you are starting to feel hungry. Maybe your boss handed you a pink slip and you have no idea what you are going to do. Maybe you’ve exhausted all of your resources and have nowhere else to turn. Whatever the scenario, it is time we recognize the power of the Almighty God and He does not always provide our miracle in the way we think He should.
He saved you (and me) and brought you (and me) out of the Egyptian bondage (whatever that happens to represent in your life) and that is NO SMALL MIRACLE. Perhaps God has your miracle packaged in a small round thing, waiting to display his Mighty Hand at work in your life, but you are looking for a different sort of package. Open your hearts and ask God to clear all preconceived ideas. I believe He wants to do the miraculous in our lives, so that Nation’s shall know. So that our children can see! So that the lost will recognize that Our God Reigns, Rules, Delivers, Keeps, Saves, Protects and Provides!
We serve the very same God that split the Red Sea! He hasn’t changed! He is still:
Jehovah-Jireh the Lord Will Provide Ge. 22:14
Jehovah-Nissi the Lord my Banner Ex. 17:15
Jehovah-Shalom the Lord my PeaceJudges 6:24
Jehovah-tsidkenu the Lord our Righteousness Je. 23:6
Jehovah-Shammah the Lord s ThereEz. 48:35
He is still the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
He is the same God that spoke life into a corpse!
He is the same God that commanded the lame walk and the blind see!
He is the same God that could not be held by a grave!
HE IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER!
He is not small, but He often provides our miracles in the form of a small round thing!
Written by Jounda LaMance
June 6, 2005
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All we wanted God to do was relieve our burden. And all the congregation say Amen!” (Sound familiar?) Can I plead the fifth? LOL
From our perspective it’s quite obvious that God wouldn’t have gone through the splitting of the Red Sea to get them to the other side and starve them to death. That’s not how God works. Yes, it is quite obvious. And yet, it’s so easy to be sidetracked by our needs and desires today, though in our hearts we know He’d not have brought us THIS far to forsake us now. It’s an especially easy trap to get into when you’re watching your children tread a dangerous path.
Maybe your boss handed you a pink slip and you have no idea what you are going to do. Or your son a green slip -- a citation?
We serve the very same God that split the Red Sea! That, we DO! Ah, what a time to be re-reading your older works! This was definitely a home-hitter! Well done, good and faithful servant of the Most High! :)
Again, you minister to
us in a way that surely pleases our Lord and Savior. Very encouraging and inspiring. "Bring on the small round thing!" Amen!!!