Pastor’s Corner: “It’s in the Little Things”
Matthew 25:19-21 (NLT) – 19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’ 21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!
Often times we are too busy to stop and reflect on what’s going on around us. The little things—they can make a huge difference in the way we think or feel. We get a new outlook on some aspect of life—or even they give us new hope and inspiration. Henri Nouwen, priest and author said this: Sometimes we are called to do great acts of kindness or make great sacrifices. But this is seldom normal. Usually we have the opportunity for many small acts of love and service, and are called to make many small sacrifices. The significance and power of these cannot be underestimated.
Doing little things can often seem so insignificant, can’t they? Especially menial things. Tedious things. The things that you have to do over and over again like making beds, doing laundry, doing dishes and preparing meals. Can I remind you that no little thing is insignificant? Little things accumulate and add up to big things. And more important of all, God notices. He is interested in the little things as much as the big things. He cares about our heart and attitude in the little things.
God uses little things to test your integrity. We think it’s the big things in life that create a leader — but no. The big crises in life reveal leadership, but leadership is not built in the big things of life. It’s built in the small things. That’s where integrity shows up — in the stuff that nobody sees, in the stuff behind the scenes, and in the small, unseen, unspectacular choices of life where you do the right thing even though nobody’s ever going to see it.
Faithfulness requires integrity, and God tests your integrity in the little things.
In Luke 16:10 (GNT) Jesus says, “Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones; whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones”. He’s saying your public blessing is determined by your private integrity. Every time a politician has a scandal, you can count on his defenders to come out and say this: “It really shouldn’t matter what a guy’s private life is like.” Have you ever heard that one? “His private life doesn’t have a thing to do with him as a leader.” It has everything to do with him as a leader! If a man lies to his wife, he’ll lie to his constituents. If he’ll lie to the person he told, “Till death do us part,” he will cheat on you, voter! Your public blessing as a person comes from your private integrity that nobody will ever see and God uses little things to test our integrity.
In His Grace,
Pastor Hamilton