Are we discouraged by the day of small things? What about the church in places like Libya, Nigeria, and China? If God is almighty, why does he let his people be persecuted, jailed, and in some cases slaughtered?1 The church under the cross lives in harsh circumstances. It’s the day of small things.
What about ourselves? The New Testament says that both the church is God’s temple, and the individual believer is God’s temple. We want ourselves and our church to be instantly transformed,2 and we grow discouraged when there seems to be very little spiritual progress. For the church, we would love to see growth, not just in numbers but also in maturity. For ourselves, we grow discouraged. When our Christian walking feels like crawling,3 when we keep waking up and struggling with the same besetting sins, we wonder, If God is able to sanctify me instantly, why doesn’t he do so? Wouldn’t that be great for my marriage, my parenting, my work, my walk with God? We become discouraged.
Why? Our expectations are shaped more by comfort than by Scripture. But Scripture repeatedly shows: there is no instant glory, no instant results. God’s ways are not our ways.
1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet,