Make a Start
Scripture Reading: Ezra 1-3; Acts 20; Psalm 23
“Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning…”
—Ezra 3:8
It must have been soul-thrilling for the Jewish exiles when King Cyrus of Persia issued a decree to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. What an unmistakable sign of God’s providence at work! Surely, as they packed up their belongings and set out for their ancestral home, they carried grand visions of a grand work.
But when they arrived, the reality set in. The temple wasn’t just neglected—it was in ruins. This wasn’t a simple renovation. It was a full rebuild. Clearing the rubble alone would take time and effort. It would require resources, manpower, and perseverance.
It would have been easy to feel overwhelmed.
That’s why the quiet words in Ezra 3:8 are so powerful: “They made a beginning.”
Sometimes, wisdom doesn’t sound dramatic. It sounds like those four words.
The most important step in any great work is the first one. If you never start, nothing happens. You have to stab the shovel into the ground to dig the well. You have to put the first dollar in savings to buy the house. You have to write the first sentence to finish the book.
You have to make a beginning.
Is there something big you know you need to do? Something God has stirred in your heart?
Don’t get paralyzed by the scope of it.
Don’t wait until you have it all figured out.
Just begin.
