David foolishly ordered a census to assess the size of his army.  Joab prophetically condemned this action  (2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21).  The problem?  Israel’s strength was never the number of its army.   Gideon even had to severely reduce the size of his force before he went to battle (Judges 7).  Four hundred prophets of Baal were no match for the one anointed prophet of God, Elijah (1 Kings 18).  The church has been having an affair with numbers for way too long.  We forget that it was a bunch of little house churches that turned the world upside down.  Never underestimate the power of a handful of disciples who completely belong to Jesus.

(You are reading from the new devotional book “Growing Toward Maturity”, by H. Lamar Smith.  Available in paperback and Kindle)