You don’t need to be different!
Our obedience is much more important to God than our creativity.
March 6
On the twelfth day Ahira son of Enan, leader of the tribe of Naphtali, presented his offering.
Numbers 7:78
Share this Devotional
You don’t need to be different!
There are some sections of scripture that can be difficult to read. Sometimes it is hard because there is a bit of monotony to the text. Today we have an example of that. The leaders of each of the tribes of Israel were to bring gifts to offer to the LORD on twelve consecutive days. The thing was that each leader brought exactly the same gift as the leader before them. After reading for the third time the exact same list of gifts you get a pretty good idea what the next leader is going to bring in the next paragraph of the text.
If you will be honest, it is very tempting to skip over the descriptions and just read the highlights. As I read through this text I wondered what must Ahira son of Enan been thinking as he brought his gift that was exactly the same as everyone else’s before him. Then it occurred to me that it didn’t matter what the gift was or that it was different but that it was what the LORD wanted.
God doesn’t need anything! He doesn’t need us to create some new way of making an offering to Him that is different than everyone else’s. His desire is that we would make the offering to Him that He wants us to make. Our obedience is much more important to God than our creativity.
This is especially true as we lead our families, ministries, and churches. God doesn’t need us to create something that is new and different from everyone else to minister to those whom He has called us. His only desire is that we would be obedient to do things the way that His Holy Spirit is telling us. That could mean that the way that we minister is exactly the same as everyone else around us.
Too often we think that we need to be different to be successful. When we think like that we are assuming God’s role of making the church successful. Your differences will not make the church successful; God will. The moment that you start believing that you HAVE to be different to make a difference for God is the moment that you depend more on your abilities than you do on God’s supreme power.
God might call you to be different and your obedience to that call is what will make you successful; not your differences. If God calls you to be exactly the same as everyone else; your obedience to that call is what will make you successful. Do it the way that God tells you to and you will have the success that God plans for you to have. If you are being obedient to God, the results that you get will be God-delivered and will have eternal results. Anything else is temporary and meaningless. Jesus, help us to bring the exact offering that You want from us.