Do Not Despise the Day of Small Beginnings

Do not despise the day of small beginnings is not an easy directive to carry out. When God plants the seed of a dream, down in your heart, like most people, you expect it to take off immediately. Unfortunately in God’s kingdom, it doesn’t often work out that way. It’s difficult to be between the place where God promised you and the place where you are.

What are Small Beginnings?

Small beginnings are where you earn your stripes in the fight to receive the promises of God. It’s a time of training and learning to ensure success on the level you want to be on some day. It is starting a business and seeing no immediate profit, writing the book and having little to no sales, having great aspirations with very little money. It’s the pregnancy before the birthing. The storm before the rainbow. Small beginnings are what many would call paying your dues.

The Bible is full of examples of people who became great but had to first come through humble beginnings. In the book of Ruth, Ruth traveled with her mother-in-law Naomi to Moab to begin a new life after the death of her husband. To make ends meet, she worked in the fields gathering the leftover wheat the other workers left behind. Ruth would eventually end up owning the same fields she worked in after marrying Boaz.

In the book of Genesis, Joseph too experienced humble beginnings. He went from being sold into slavery by his own brothers to being thrown in jail by Potiphar, to becoming the second most powerful man in Egypt next to Pharoah.

Jesus was born into small humble beginnings in a lowly manger. He began a small ministry that was not always received by the people of the day, yet He fulfilled His destiny to be the King of Kings.

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I often hear Tyler Perry talk about the small beginnings of his career, putting on shows ultimately for an empty house. Though he’s now a billionaire, when I first met Tyler, walking my college’s homecoming parade, I didn’t see him rich, I saw him grinding trying to get there.

Bishop TD Jakes frequently recollects the small beginnings of his ministry, preaching to a handful of parishioners when no one would call him to preach. Both of these men, great in their own gifts and called to purpose by God, started from the bottom in humble beginnings.

When you look at what happened for other people and it looks like an overnight success, it was most likely a long night for them. It more than likely took years of hustle with no evidence of flow, rejection, setbacks, wading through uncertainty, walking in faith but fearing secretly on the inside, and mistakes before it finally took off.

If you are faithful in little, God will make you ruler over much (Luke 16:10). There have been days when I felt like the work I was doing for God was all in vain. That is until I was reminded in Zechariah 4:10 not to be discouraged by small things. Let’s dive a little deeper and discuss 3 reasons why we should not despise the day of small beginnings.

1. God has a plan.

When God tells you to do something, He doesn’t always divulge the details of the assignment. He often shows you the end and leaves the beginning and the middle to obscurity.

Joseph saw his ending as a ruler in a dream, but not his enslavement or imprisonment. God told Noah to build the ark and didn’t provide all the details as to why, but God had a plan.

God takes us through process little by little so do not be weary in well doing (Galatians 6:9). Do not despise the day of small beginnings and give up too soon because God has a plan and it will all work out if you have the tenacity to stay the course. Release what you had in mind and let God’s plan prevail.

2. God is developing you for the promise.

You become your best self in the process and through the experiences you overcome. God, the author and finisher, puts you through character development to perfect you for the next chapter. Education in the low places prepares you for success in places of elevation. Therefore, do not despise these small beginnings because it is in the process that you learn the basics, gain the wisdom, and acquire patience, resilience, and strength for the next level. Remember, practice makes purpose!

3. God’s timing is perfect.

In small beginnings, God’s silence is the breeding ground for our impatience. Seeing no change from consistent effort can often make you think God did not call you to a particular assignment. You say, maybe it’s not meant for someone like me, perhaps I misunderstood God, I’m not cut out for this. However, there is a time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1), including the day of small beginnings.

Much of our disappointment and discouragement comes from what we thought not working out in the way or as quickly as we hoped it would. Everything happens in due season, or when your time has come due. God is not confined by our time limits, but His timing for our revelation to the world. After you have suffered for a little while, God will establish you (1 Peter 5:10).

If you are in the midst of small beginnings, relax and take it all in. It is in these humble moments that God is doing a great work in you. Don’t sweat the small stuff! Great things are formed out of humble beginnings and the vision is for an appointed time. We like the end result, but God is more concerned about the process as we are molded, changed, and perfected for greatness in it. The smallest family will become a thousand people, and the tiniest group will become a mighty nation. At the right time, I, the LORD, will make it happen (Isaiah 60:22, NLT).

Do not despise the day of small beginnings because the journey to the promise is just as important. Everything may not begin how you’d hoped, but it always finishes how it’s supposed to. Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be (Job 8:7, NIV).

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