Too Big To Succeed

What is my motive for wanting bigger and better? Is it to make a name for myself or for the glory of God? Indeed, bigger is not always better. In fact bigger can get in the way of what’s best. When a bigger organization competes with being a better organization I have to ask, “What am I missing?” Has the transactional become priority over the relational?

We see this in churches when their primary goal becomes the building of buildings over the building of disciples. Yes, there are plenty of good reasons to expand capacity, such as the construction of educational facilities to teach God’s word. However, space expansion is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Keep people the priority, as you produce more.

So we ask a sobering question. “Are we using debt or any other means of manipulation to miss God’s best, just to become bigger?” If becoming bigger drives your life, your work, your home or your church then you are setting yourself up for failure. God is not pleased when bigness overshadows the simple, like loving people in their sin. Love is large to the Lord. His heart is for bigness to be a result, not a reason for your productive work.

Moreover, there are times that becoming bigger is not His will. In other words, growing larger is failure to follow God’s best. It may be mean giving away more assets rather than building a bigger home that only becomes a memorial to man. Scattering, not gathering, is God’s way. So let go of the good, so God can make it His best. If you hold tight to control then He will pry open your hand of distrust and give to others He trusts.

Jesus gave us a clear warning to avoid building bigger buildings for our recognition: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ‘ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21).

Am I rich toward God over myself? Is bigness a result or a reason for my work?

Related Readings: Psalm 10:3; Ecclesiastes 5:10; 1 Corinthians 4:3-4; James 4:13-15