There’s an ending to the story you struggle your way through today, but it’s an ending you do not know yet. You can’t see what’s ahead, but God has already aligned it for you.
Here’s the problem … the opportunities to step into alignment with God’s story for your struggle don’t quite look the way you would imagine good things to look. You’re looking for God’s good plans in today’s great news, but you likely won’t find it there. God’s good plans are typically tucked away in today’s ordinary next steps.
I assure you, David had no idea his chore of taking lunch to his brothers that day would lead him to his legendary defeat of the giant Goliath. He was just the teenage boy delivering lunch before Uber Eats came along. But, no doubt, his faithfulness to this little chore brought his opportunity for his big move that changed everything.
1 Samuel 17:17 “One day Jesse said to David, “Take this basket of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and carry them quickly to your brothers. It was just one day. One day like all the other days. Super unimpressive chore David must not have been overly excited to do. But this chore was an opportunity. An opportunity to change the trajectory of his whole life.
Before you today are little chores. Little chores you didn’t wake up excited to do. But, Sis, it is your faithfulness in these little chores that aligns you with opportunities for the big things you dream about.
God never gives us a countdown to big opportunities. He doesn’t inform us ahead of time so we know without a doubt this next step is THE STEP. Nope, he hides the extraordinary in the ordinary. You’re not going to know when your faithfulness with the ordinary will unlock the extraordinary in your life, you’re just going to have to keep showing up for the chores of today and treat them like they’re opportunities. Opportunities for promotion. Opportunities for next level living. Opportunities for divine encounters and split second perfect timing.
I know, today just looks like an ordinary Tuesday where you’re doing the same thing you always do on Tuesdays … but remember the day David took lunch to his brothers sure looked ordinary too. It sure seemed insignificant. Not only insignificant, but honestly demeaning. Here boy, you’re not good enough to go to battle like your brothers, so you just go take them a sandwich. But his faithfulness with a sandwich led him to a smackdown we’re still talking about over 3,000 years later!
What if today held an opportunity for you that would impact generations to come for 3,000 years? And what if it was yours to either seize or skip? What if it was so ordinary you were actually put off by having to be the one to do it because no one else will? But what if, in God’s divine wisdom, he has aligned the motherload of good plans to follow your faithfulness with today’s opportunities?
It’s easy to read the famous stories in the Bible and not see how they apply to your life. It’s easy to know the end of the story and miss the faithfulness with the ordinary it required.
Noah built the ark for somewhere between 50 and 100 years. That’s our entire lifetime of the same work building the same boat, all during a drought! Every day required the same work. He received no awards and no recognition. In fact, he was mocked. People thought he was cray-cray. But one day, it started to rain. And that rain didn’t stop. Noah’s faithfulness in ordinary, every day work saved his entire family and every living species of animal on the land at that time.
Genesis 6:14, Noah receives his instructions from God, and it begins with, “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.” Think about this, the ark would require 1,500 gopher trees. Those trees had to have been growing in the forest for at least 30 years to be big enough to use. God was planning for Noah’s obedience before he ever gave him instructions. GOD IS PLANNING FOR YOUR OBEDIENCE BEFORE HE EVER GIVES YOU INSTRUCTIONS. He has planted the forest, believing in your potential to use it.
There’s a whole forest around you, girlfriend, are you doing anything with it?
What will you be missing if you fail to be faithful with the ordinary work of today? What if Noah would have quit when he was cutting down his 800th tree? What if he would have woke up on a Tuesday morning and said, I am straight up tired of cutting down trees! I’m tired of dragging those trees out of the forest and shaving them down by hand into lumber. I’m done with this meaningless work!
Noah would have missed the opportunity of a lifetime for him and his family. Every single day was a choice to stay in alignment with God’s good plans for him. Every single day was a choice to walk in his purpose, although that purpose seemed so insignificant when he’s cutting down trees, shaving down trees, to piece by piece build a boat while a drop of rain never even falls.
We know the importance of Noah’s work, because we know the end of the story. But Noah didn’t know the end of the story on his 4,000th Tuesday of getting splinters. He likely didn’t see the opportunity in that day, he just saw the work.
You only see the work in today, but Sis, there is opportunity here. Opportunity to step into good plans for your life created by the Almighty long before your first breath. And you can trust that those plans are ridiculously good. I know sometimes we hold back, questioning if God could really dream up a life that would compare to the dreams we can imagine. For real … could you have imagined better mountains than God created? Could you have created a color more magnificent than the turquoise oceans? Could you have painted a sky better than he does in those Summer time sunsets over the water? Could you have created the perfection of your dog if you were working from scratch? God has proven his ability to create … you can trust that he has created good plans for your life in the same way!
The path to those good plans is the ordinary work of today. It is your faithfulness with today’s chores that aligns you with the divine opportunities.
Where my single girls at? You don’t know how this story ends, so you don’t even realize that one day in the middle of some ordinary chore, you’re likely going to come face to face with the man God designed for you. I mean what if it’s at the grocery store, and you show up looked ratchet and you have your face buried in your phone at the checkout line? What if this chore was your opportunity? Wouldn’t you show up different?!!!!
I know, you’ve been to the grocery store hundreds of times and the best thing you ever walked away with was laundry detergent on sale, but your faithfulness determines your opportunities!
Every single day is a choice to stay in alignment with God’s good plans for your life. Every single day is a choice to walk in purpose, although you’re not 100% clear on that purpose and today’s chores seem so insignificant. Honey, you just don’t know the end of the story. You don’t know when a sandwich can lead to a smackdown. You don’t know when the boat is going to be needed. You don’t know when what you have done all the times before will be THE TIME that changes ALL FUTURE TIMES. But I promise you this, this time here today leads to THE TIME, and you won’t arrive to THE time if you’re not faithful with THIS time. So really, this time is THE TIME because it’s all connected. You just don’t know it right now because you don’t know the end of the story God already has planned.
You don’t know … but you don’t want to miss it. You don’t want to sit this out. Today is an opportunity to step into alignment with God’s good plans for your lifetime, it just won’t quite look like it! There are opportunities galore in this ordinary day, and your faithfulness determines your ability to live in the opportunity, or miss it.
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