What is Abide? | Listen to this Episode 

This week’s Abide episode comes from the passage in the Our Daily Bread devotional from Monday the 30th of September, which is Zechariah 4:6-10.

Trusting the process. It can be hard. Sometimes when you are working on a project or building towards something, you know that the finished product will be good… but perhaps you just want it to be done already. A couple of years ago I was building a TV cabinet – and I just wanted to get it done. In my rush to get it completed, one of my initial cuts was a mere millimetre short – I thought it’d be fine, and in my haste I kept moving on. However when it came time to assemble the whole cabinet together, that one small seemingly insignificant thing, ended up having far bigger consequences, as I found a much larger, way more obvious gap at the other end of the cabinet.

Maybe it’s not carpentry, but you’re working towards a promotion, teaching your child how to ride a bike for the first time, or building up towards something else … Sometimes the process or each step towards that finish line is hard.

Sometimes it feels like it’s taking far longer than it should, and it can feel like all your efforts seem to be going nowhere. This is what we find in Zechariah 4, verses 6 through 10 after a vision that came to the priest Zechariah.

So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

“What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’”

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.

“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”

Zerubbabel (who was the leader in Jerusalem) was in charge of rebuilding this temple, but slow progress was being made and they began to despise it. God reminded him of His powerful presence through a vision that Zechariah had about lamps supplied with oil. This vision was for how Zerubbabel will accomplish the work of rebuilding the new temple, and represents the work that God will do. But we’re going to be exploring that more in next week’s episode of Abide. For now, let’s focus on not despising the day of small things.

Often we feel like we despise the little things – we want to see the big miracles happen quickly, but it’s often through the small, little things that add up over time, that we see God at work. Can you think of a time when you perhaps despised the small things and just wanted your prayers to be answered? You just wanted to reach the finish line and get whatever you had to do to get there over and done with? We’ve all been there, and I’d love for you to share in the comments when that moment was – and perhaps how God did get you through that time as well.

Peter is describing us as living stones, being built into a spiritual house. He’s talking of the way we are brought into God’s family once we accept Jesus’ sacrifice, and how each one of us is a part of this building. Each one of us makes up part of the walls, laid in place by the master architect.

When we trust in our own resources – our own power – we miss out on experiencing all the wonderful things God will supply, even along the way in each one of those steps.

Let’s take a moment to re-read verse 10

“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”

But for today, have a think. Is there anything you are trying to accomplish, or build towards but only find yourself taking baby steps towards that goal? They might be small things that perhaps on surface level seem insignificant? But like I learned with my TV cabinet, you can’t rush these small things. So, I’d encourage you to spend some time praying today, and to remember to trust in God even in the small things, and to not get distracted by the bigger picture.