In our desire to serve the Lord, we may often feel that our resources are falling short, our opportunities limited, and our gifts and abilities not what they need to be.  Honestly, that’s OK.  What’s important is that we keep going anyway – and that we truly do whatever we truly can.  One of the way God leads us is through the seemingly limited opportunities that we have. 

No doubt Joseph felt limited in Egypt.  Gideon could hardly be called a visionary when God first spoke to Him.  Yet we rightly see both of these men as heroes and examples in the faith.  Their success depended upon God and not themselves.

Paul may have been tempted to grow weary during those tedious trials and difficulties that he faced in Acts 21-28.  (I actually find it tedious just reading about them.)  But what do we see at the end of the book of Acts?  An apostle defeated and hopeless?  No.  Rather, we see a resilient, determined, active apostle, working within the confines of house arrest in Rome.  Only God knows the long-term effects of his ministry at this time.

“Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” – Acts 28:30-31 (NKJV)