“There is an ancient Indian legend of a king who loved chess. He challenged visitors to a game, and was usually victorious. One day a traveling sage visited the kingdom and was challenged to a game. To entice him to play, the king offered to give the sage whatever reward he asked if he won. When the king was defeated, to honor his word he asked the sage what prize he would like. The sage asked for one grain of rice to be placed on the first square of the chessboard, and then that it be doubled on each following square.
“The request seemed modest, and the king ordered a bag of rice to be brought. One grain was placed on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth and so on. But it quickly became apparent the terms of the request were impossible to meet. By the twenty-first square more than one million grains of rice would be required. By the thirty-first square the total would go over one billion—with more than half of the chessboard still left to go. Small things have a big impact when they are added together.”*
When the body of Christ works together, they multiply their effectiveness as well. According to Paul, the church grows and becomes more effective when it is “...fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part…” (Ephesians 4:16). God takes our individual abilities as disciples and joins them together in such a way that the effect of our combined efforts is greater than the sum of our individual contributions. Mathematically speaking, 1 + 1 becomes more than 2 when it comes to kingdom work. The word “together” appears in the NASB95 New Testament 120 times in 118 verses. Groups gathered together for evil as well as for good. When God’s people join together to do God’s will, they accomplish more than they could ever accomplish alone.
God loves you!
Mike
*https://ministry127.com/resources/illustration/the-growth-of-wisdom
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