When people ask me how I got started in ministry, I tell them I started by writing for free publications for free for 10 years. This is not what most people want to hear.
When I tell them I started by folding newsletters in the den of my home for several years, they seem crestfallen.
When I tell them I started out by cleaning the bathrooms in our first little ministry office, they seem confused.
“No, I mean how did you get started writing and speaking?” they ask.
“I’m telling you,” I reply. “This is how I got started. Being faithful in the little things. By doing what God led me to do on any particular day.”
We don’t obey God in the seemingly small assignments in order to get the bigger ones. However, God will never entrust someone with a big assignment who has not proved herself trustworthy in the small.
When God invites you to join Him in His work, what you do next reveals what you truly believe about Him. If you trust Him completely and follow His lead in the great dance of obedience, then you will experience the spins, twirls, and lifts of the glory life Jesus came to give.
Jesus told a parable about a master who was going on a journey. He gave one servant 5 bags of gold, one 2 bags of gold, and another 1 bag of gold. When he returned, the servant with 5 bags had invested and now had 10. The servant with 2 bags had invested and now had 4. To both these men, the Master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” (Matthew 25:23 NIV)
However, the servant who had one bag hid it in the ground because of fear.
“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. (Matthew 25:26-29 NIV)
When God calls you, if you decide to “sit this one out” because of fear, then the chairs along the wall are positioned for you to sit and watch the less fearful wow the crowd. But know this: The band is playing your song.
When God extends His invitation to join Him in the divine dance of obedience, the time to accept is at that very moment. We have about 10 to 30 seconds before common sense talks us out of obeying God’s promptings. The time to act is as soon as you sense the Spirit calling you to move.
When my husband and I took ballroom dance classes (We called it Dancing with the Scars), I remember complaining to the dance instructor, “How many times are we going to have to go over the one-two-three-four of the foxtrot? I’m tired of making these little boxes. I want to move around the room! I want to dip and swirl!”
“As soon as you learn to follow your husband’s lead and master the basic steps,” she replied. “Only then will we move on to fancier moves.”
As you live and move and have your being in Jesus, the places He will lead you will become more and more glorious as you learn to relinquish control and trust His lead. Big assignments begin with a thousand tiny “yeses.” Small steps of obedience become beautiful sweeping moves of faith.
But first…you have to take the little steps.
Heavenly Father, forgive me for wanting the big assignments and not being faithful to do the seemingly smaller ones. Help me to remember that every time I obey You, even when the tasks seem insignificant, You smile and say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.” I love You, Amen.
What step is God calling you to take today? Leave a comment and let’s share.
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Comments 28
Thank you for this write-up. I have been blessed. Oh! How many times I’ve missed the leading by ignoring the small things!
Hi, please keep me in prayer as God has totally taken me out of my introvert comfort zone. I believe He has put in my heart to start a women’s fellowship at the Senior Community where I live. At first I hesitates because I wasn’t sure. Then I called a meeting and more women than I expected showed up with favorable responses about the group. Also we have a Community Counsel Board where I was elected Vice President. So not me. I’m a behind the scenes person. Then seeing and hearing the verse where God say He’s doing a new thing, Isaiah 43:19. I’m nervous but I’m more afraid of not being obedient . Please keep me in prayer.
You are inspiring me, Kim!
I on the other hand am an extreme extrovert! I jump right in !
I have led Women’s Bible groups with nonbeliever ( 40 days of purpose) and at church. I feel so inept as I am not a Biblical scholar by any means. I love the Lord and want to lead others but I don’t feel these experiences where I have dove right in were successful . I’ve come to the conclusion that it just isn’t my gift but I long to bring others to Christ! I need prayer, too!
God bless you Kim with Holy boldness as you move Oort of your comfort. I,too, a background person who wants to bey God🙏🏻🙌🏻❤️✝️
Praying Kim! I’m assuming you’re not a young lady and this gives confirmation that He certainly can do a new thing at any age! Blessings and may we scream as Caleb did and say ‘ I’m as young as I ever was’ paraphrase mine!!!
Blessings in your new journey and may you be blessed beyond measure for your faith
Praying for you! I, too, always felt more comfortable “behind the scenes” but God has put me in several situations where I was totally out of my comfort zone but He saw me through and I give Him all the glory!!
God is calling me to be more faithful in financial details and spending habits.
Luke 12:48-“To whom much is given, much is required.”
Funny that you write about this today. The same thought crossed my mind today. Thank you for sharing! I wish us both success! Many blessings
I have been asked to teach my Sunday School class on occasion. And it the fear of not feeling competent to teach as my teacher teaches. I know I can do it. It is just fear of stepping up and doing it. I have asked others to do it in my place. That is just one example, the other is stepping out and selling my product in my business. I know I can do that as well, it is just the self-confidence in both of these situations. Pray my strength to step out and do God’s will.
I pray for God confidence for you Vicki in Jesus name and peace of God to guard your heart and mind
Sharon, thank you for sharing glimpses of your life from such a beautiful, personal, and intimate lens. I was just offered a job that is outside of comfort zone–a role I have avoided since graduating from grad school in 2009. As I sat in quiet contemplating the job offer, the enemy immediately flooded my mind with thoughts of inadequacy. Holy Spirit quickly reminded me of God’s grace, faithfulness and favor in similar past situations. But God! I feel convicted to say yes to the seemingly large assignment knowing I have to trust Him to lead, equip and guide.
God wants me to be patient and with self control of my tongue. I have an Aunt who is very well informed and wise and quite a talker. I used to go home feeling down because I’m not wise with what i say and tend to be perceived as dumb and immature previous years when she lived here. She now lives in the States and has been gone for many years. She came back from US to move into another home and change landlord. I’ve been taking her to church and we would go out for lunch right after church service. I had resolved that I be positive and just listen to her talk. Our relationship is good now and I treat her with respect. Those years she had been gone was a growing time for me in the word and with God. God has been trying to make me see that I need wisdom and to be humble. People would want to hang out with me if I stay quiet with gentle spirit and be positive. Not boisterous or prideful. God has given me another chance to make things right with my Aunt. She now considers me as her companion.
Do you have a daily devotion book
Author
Yes, Listening to God Day by Day and Extraordinary Moments with God.
I am truly feeling a sense of conviction. I know now my purpose in a few areas of life. I also know now to follow the lead of a man named Michael. I recently met I have spent sooo many hours fighting the direction of God. It’s hard to trust or believe in that dream God placed in our heart. I doubt, oh how i doubt. Things that I once were told were not real. (Just a crazy dream). Has honestly come to fruition. I’m a little nervous.
It’s been 30 years in the making. I hate the uncertainty of the future. Im a planner and plotter. I hate learning to place my trust in God and let a true man that i do not know. Take the lead.. I hate feeling a sene of loss of control. I just hope God is truly in charge of everything in my life. I invited GOD in. I guess i should just sit down..and let him guide me. I think truly god has lead people into my life and instead of fighting that divine appointment. I should sit and listen to what is being said.
Please pray for me. I’m scared and I could really appreciate any and all prayers in the guidance of God.
Thanks so much for this message Sharon. It was so timely. Like you, I want to just do! In fact, I’m learning how to play the bass guitar and just want to play some songs. But, I can’t play any songs without learning the notes, frets, scales etc. so I’ll keep doing the small assignments to get to the big assignment. 🙂
Additionally, I was recently accepted into a big assignment highly competitive doctoral program which will equip me with knowledge and skills necessary to strengthen the work that God has called me to do for family caregivers as a labor of love. As the sole, full-time unpaid caregiver to my mom, who is a brain stem stroke survivor, I am aware of the huge need for support, resources and respite.
However, in order to inform policy change and evidence-based interventions, we need data. This program will help me achieve that.
Unfortunately, it’s very costly with no financial aid available at this time outside of loans. I was told that once I am a student, there is more opportunity for grants and funding. Therefore, I took the 1st small step by paying my enrollment fee (thanks to my Heavenly Father blessing me with an amazing earthly father) and I’m also going to apply to another school which may have more funding available. There are pros and cons to both. I will continue to trust God along this process.
Thank you once again for sharing the goodness of God in practical terms.
I know what it’s like to dive into ministry and to be scared to death at the same time. I have sometimes said no, not knowing if I was walking in disobedience or being prevented by God, bc he didn’t open that door yet. I’ve recently been challenged to join a ministry that requires teaching. I know God has given me the gift of teaching, but I haven’t used it to teach adults very often. I’m Going step-by-step and just starting out with administrative work. I am praying, Lord, if this is your will keep the door open and help me not to be afraid to go through it.
Amen! This is my testimony, A lady at church asked me to do a worship dance at her daughter’s wedding. My first reaction was, “A solo? I don’t know…Does your daughter know about this? Is this your desire? Beautiful sister, I have only danced with a group and only Christmas and Easter no more.” She insisted. I went home and thought about it, and God convinced me to do so! I told myself, ” He is entrusting you with this mission. Do it!” Okay, I accepted. A couple of days later, I had the song and a vision of golden flags in my mind. But guess what? I had never danced with those before. Lol!
So, following God’s lead, I bought golden flags and a whole holy outfit for the dance. Suddenly, I started to receive YouTube notifications from someone in PA who has a dance Christian school and also provides worship Flag classes. You will not believe me, but also an intensive worship dance workshop was opened. Right away, I paid for it, I continued to follow His lead and drove four hours to get to PA. It was great!!! Something curious and exciting happened. We, the participants, were requested to complete an assessment that will provide the skills to be developed. Two categories were dancer and choreographer. Incredibly, my results said “Choreographer” 😲I’m still surprised!
Well, back to the wedding dance, I had a situation. My golden flags were too big to flag inside the house, and I couldn’t do it outside because it was usually too cold or windy. Yet, the Lord gave me another vision or idea: silk fans!!! OMG!!! To God be the gloryyyyyyyy!! Those were the ones for the worship dance. What I did was called spontaneous worship. still at home, I practice with everything, even the dress. Some people who saw me afterward expressed it was beautiful! I surrendered myself and fasted three days before the event, and before doing it, I was praying in my mind.
I am grateful with our Abba. Thank you, Father, for trusting in me.
Perhaps this is the beginning of a dance ministry at my church.
Yes, small steps to reach goals. I started a health ministry (and team) 1 1/2 years prior to COVID. I felt that my ministry was not growing, and no one understood what a health ministry was or why I started. Then our team took small steps of promoting and educating, as well as providing health screenings to the parishioners. Along with offering quarterly newsletters and starting a bereavement support group this May, more and more people are participating. In addition, the health ministry team is becoming more involved. I no longer feel like I should give up. I may not get as many participants as I would like, but that will come in time. I know this because it is already improving.
I have the book Sudden Glory. I read it many years ago and have shared it with several women through the years. I have even taught from it on more than one occasion. I highly recommend it! It is full of incredible promise. Many of the illustrations and stories Sharon relates have never left me. God truly downloaded into Sharon’s heart, mind and spirit on this one. Every woman should have it in their personal library❤️
I have been given an opportunity to help my pastor and a young church through my Administration skills. I have been very sick for the last 5 years and am on disability. My medication is very expensive but I am taking a leap of faith and trusting in the Lord that he will take care of me. I find out all the details this afternoon as I am meeting with my Pastor. I really enjoyed this article and it shows me I am making the right decision Thank you and God bless
These paragraphs! So so true! Such a writer, you are!
“When God calls you, if you decide to “sit this one out” because of fear, then the chairs along the wall are positioned for you to sit and watch the less fearful wow the crowd. But know this: The band is playing your song.
When God extends His invitation to join Him in the divine dance of obedience, the time to accept is at that very moment. We have about 10 to 30 seconds before common sense talks us out of obeying God’s promptings. The time to act is as soon as you sense the Spirit calling you to move.”
Author
Thank you!
So God is soooo amazing!! I wrote in my journal last night, sometime around 11pm “to just be obedient”. Amazing God!!! Thank you for being obedient Sharon in allowing the Lord to use you. This is confirmation.
Author
That is soooooo awesome!
The Holy Spirit has been prompting me to get a womens Bible study going in my circle of women. Only now that I have a much younger and new friend who has felt called to do the same are we taking the steps to do so. It’s a slow go but we WILL get there together and get it up and going soon. We are discussing it with other friends FINALLY and searching for the right study to begin. We have some great resources so we are excited to make the plans and finally begin!
My issue is not that I want bigger or more recognition. It is that I don’t trust my decisions. I overthink….
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