A Walk in the Park

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

My devotional reading today was in the book of Zechariah. It is one of my favorite books in what is known as the Minor Prophets. The term minor neither refers to a prospector, nor a less important prophet. Some suggest they are minor because of the length of their prophecies, or how short the books are, or the extent of their prophetic ministries. That’s not the main point of this eDevotion, so I’ll move on.

Zechariah was a “post-exilic” prophet who ministered to the Jewish people when they returned from their 70-year exile in Babylon. Zechariah, along with the prophet Haggai, was called and used by God to motivate the people to complete the rebuilding of the Temple, which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. In a series of eight visions, four messages and two burdens, Zechariah challenged and encouraged his contemporaries to continue the work of the Lord because great blessings were planned for the restored nation—both in Zechariah’s day and in the future.

The work needed to do this would not be easy, but what an accomplishment it was. For example, Nehemiah worked on rebuilding the walls around the city of Jerusalem, which he finished in just 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15). And they did it with one-hand-tied-behind-their-back, so to speak. (Nehemiah 4:17 says the builders carried materials in one hand and a weapon to protect themselves in the other).

The main point of these testimonies is that they invoked God and His help to complete the task before them, and He helped them! What seemed to be difficult—or even impossible—is merely the ordinary with God!

To that end, I hope your God has not become too small. Do you see Him at work in you? In the lives of your friends? In your church family? No matter what difficulties, problems, or opposition we face, God is able to work in and through us to accomplish the tasks He wants us to do. Of course the ultimate end is that He receives the glory for the work that is done.

There is a Scripture that comes to mind here. With men it is impossible, but not with God. With God, all things are possible (Mark 10:27).

One of my Bible College professors was fond of saying, “What seems like a big deal to us is just a walk in the park for the Lord!”