The Ministries of the Unnamed

by an Old Disciple

What were their names?

The Bible is replete with nameless, ordinary people who accomplished great things for God. Like the sign says as you enter an old Confederate cemetery of unknown soldiers, “Who they were, nobody knows. What they did everybody knows.”

What were the names of those who let Paul down in a basket? Who knows the name of the young Jewish maiden whom the Syrian Army Captain, Naaman, took captive? The girl was directly responsible for his healing of leprosy by Elisha. And what of the unnamed Egyptian who directed David in his pursuit of the enemy who had taken everything from him at Ziklag? Do you know the name of the boy, Paul’s nephew, who was instrumental in saving his life on one occasion?

Most, if not all of us, hold a disproportionate view of those who are well known workers in the Lord’s vineyard. These are the exceptions, not the rule, among God’s servants. We spend our time looking at the overflow, not taking into account the source. The Lord gently reminds us we’re to look at the sparrows, grass, and daisies; mighty oaks are the exception.

Those unnumbered saints that go unnamed, unnoticed, and may I add, unappreciated, need to remember Jesus transforms the common into the uncommon. You know, like turning water into wine!

That mighty man of prayer, E.M. Bounds, died at seventy-eight years old; comparatively unknown for fifty years, apart from his congregation and local people. He had published only two books at the time of his Home going. And saintly Oswald Chambers, who died at the young age of forty-three, had just three books printed. All the rest were put out after his departure. His wife Biddy spent the rest of her life producing the volumes of his sermons and teachings; which she had taken down by shorthand.

God produces inspiration from common people and common things. Few of us ordinary saints realize the influence we carry. I like the way Oswald Chambers puts it, “Some people do a certain thing and the way in which they do it hollows that thing to us ever afterward.”

“If you feel like you’re losing your individuality, it is because God is making you one with Jesus.” Oswald Chambers

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