Little Us, Big Kingdom - Luke 13:18-21 > A Christian Devotional

by Phil Ware at Heartlight

Key Passage

"Then Jesus said, "What is God's kingdom like? What can I compare it with? God's kingdom is like the seed of the mustard plant. A person plants this seed in his garden. The seed grows and becomes a tree. The birds build nests on its branches." Jesus said again, "What can I compare God's kingdom with? It is like yeast that a woman mixes into a big bowl of flour to make bread. The yeast makes all the dough (bread) rise.""

— Luke 13:18-21 (Read Full Text)

Key Thought

The Kingdom isn't about logic or predictability, but about God and his sovereign power and grace! God can take something small, someone insignificant, even a person who is broken, and do phenomenal things. A huge tree comes from a small seed. A whole loaf is leavened by just a touch of yeast. God asks us to offer him ourselves -- not someone we would like to be or might someday be, but ourselves as we are now. If we will give ourselves, our all, we can be caught up into God's powerful and mysterious work of the Kingdom.

Prayer

Father, Lord God Almighty, I offer you all that I am to serve you and bring glory to you. I long to be a part of your triumphant work of the Kingdom. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Related Scriptures

"I will want to see this because the kingdom of God is not talk but power."
— 1 Corinthians 4:20

"The thing you should want most is God's kingdom and doing the good things God wants you to do. Then all these other things you need will be given to you."
— Matthew 6:33

"We don't tell people about ourselves. But we tell people that Jesus Christ is Lord; and we tell people that we are your servants for Jesus. God once said, "The light will shine out of the darkness!" And this is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts. He gave us light by letting us know the glory of God that is in the face of Christ. We have this treasure {from God}. But we are only like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows that this great power is from God, not from us. We have troubles all around us, but we are not defeated. We often don't know what to do, but we don't give up. We are persecuted, but God does not leave us. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed. We have the death of Jesus in our own bodies. We carry this death so that the life of Jesus can also be seen in our bodies (lives). We are alive, but for Jesus we are always in danger of death. This happens to us so that the life of Jesus can be seen in our bodies that die. So death is working in us, but life is working in you. The Scriptures say, "I believed, so I spoke." Our faith is like that too. We believe, and so we speak. God raised the Lord Jesus from death. And we know that God will also raise us with Jesus. God will bring us together with you, and we will stand before him. All these things are for you. And so the grace (kindness) of God is being given to more and more people. This will bring more and more thanks to God for his glory. That is why we never become weak. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. We have small troubles for a while now, but those troubles are helping us gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than the troubles. So we think about the things we cannot see, not what we see. The things we see continue only a short time. And the things we cannot see will continue forever."
— 2 Corinthians 4:5-18