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Small insignificant things
We can often read and hear about special people who have really achieved great things and we wish that one day we could achieve something that would leave a mark in history. We might consider those people “lucky” or “particularly gifted”, but the truth is that they are just as ordinary as everybody else.
Someone said, “There are no great people in this world; there are only ordinary people. The only difference is that some people set higher goals, dream bigger dreams, and settle for nothing less than the best!”
God does not differentiate between people. He gives everyone the same possibility, but not all grasp what God has given them and even fewer hold on to it. When life does not meet their expectations, many lose courage and give up.
However, it is not the big choices where most people make mistakes because many never reach them. They make mistakes because they stumble upon “small and insignificant things”. One wants to be great, but never comes so far. Instead of climbing up the ladder, we stand at the bottom and admire those who have come to the top.
God is not so much interested in what you do on Sunday morning because anyone can raise their hands and sing Hallelujah when everybody else around them does that, too. What God is interested in is what you do day in, day out – not what you do every now and then.
Maybe you think, “This day is not so important, I would rather get a grip on myself tomorrow”. However, it is exactly the days that you feel are not so important that actually are – the days you do not feel like doing what you know you should do.
When you are in top form and everybody stands and applauds you, you do not need so much strength to do the right thing, but when ordinary days come and when life might not feel so special, you need character to continue doing a good job in the “small and insignificant things”.
We will take a closer look at two things God is searching for in your life. They were the two features that made Abraham the father of faith, enabled God to raise Joseph to a high position and made Him choose David instead of Saul.
1. Obedience to the Word of God
If Satan comes and tempts you to start taking drugs and kill the neighbour, it is hopefully easy for you to say no and keep to the Word of God, but he knows that if he can tempt you to be disobedient in small things, bigger things will come after a while.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
God dismissed Saul from the position of king because he was not careful in obeying what God had asked him to do. Saul had received instructions from God about what he should do, and he did “almost” everything just like He had said. When the war was won, he took the best sheep and cows, but killed what was worthless. It might sound reasonable, but that was not what God had asked him to do.
1 Samuel 15:13-15
When Samuel reached him, Saul said, "The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord's instructions." But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?" Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest."
Saul did not have bad intentions by taking some of the war spoils, but the problem was that God is more interested in our obedience in small daily things than obedience in big decisions every now and then. If we are first obedient in the small daily things, we will be obedient in the greater things.
1 Samuel 15:22
But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
Our obedience in the daily walk reveals our loving relationship with God, and when He sees our obedience in these things He knows that our heart is totally with Him.
John 14:21
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.
2. Faithfulness
Faithfulness is not just about being true to your spouse, but it is a lifestyle expressed in everything you do.
Proverbs 28:20
A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.
Faithfulness brings a rich blessing, but not everybody enjoys this blessing. It is namely in the nature of faithfulness that you have to continue doing what you should do, even when you are not feeling like it – and this is not always easy.
Joseph was careful in obeying God, even in small things, and he faithfully did his best – no matter if he was a son in the house, Potiphar’s slave or a prisoner. Since he had this attitude, God blessed everything he did.
Genesis 39:2-4
The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
God noticed David’s obedience and faithfulness when it came to small and insignificant things such as taking care of sheep, and He chose him to be the shepherd for Israel – He got evidence that David was a man according to God’s heart. Abraham remained faithful to God’s promise about a son so he proved that obedience to Him was still the most important thing in his life.
Do not, therefore, take lightly the “small and insignificant things”, do not take a light attitude to your daily life. Your faithfulness and obedience to God lays a foundation for something bigger.
Luke 16:10
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
Someone said, “There are no great people in this world; there are only ordinary people. The only difference is that some people set higher goals, dream bigger dreams, and settle for nothing less than the best!”
God does not differentiate between people. He gives everyone the same possibility, but not all grasp what God has given them and even fewer hold on to it. When life does not meet their expectations, many lose courage and give up.
However, it is not the big choices where most people make mistakes because many never reach them. They make mistakes because they stumble upon “small and insignificant things”. One wants to be great, but never comes so far. Instead of climbing up the ladder, we stand at the bottom and admire those who have come to the top.
God is not so much interested in what you do on Sunday morning because anyone can raise their hands and sing Hallelujah when everybody else around them does that, too. What God is interested in is what you do day in, day out – not what you do every now and then.
Maybe you think, “This day is not so important, I would rather get a grip on myself tomorrow”. However, it is exactly the days that you feel are not so important that actually are – the days you do not feel like doing what you know you should do.
When you are in top form and everybody stands and applauds you, you do not need so much strength to do the right thing, but when ordinary days come and when life might not feel so special, you need character to continue doing a good job in the “small and insignificant things”.
We will take a closer look at two things God is searching for in your life. They were the two features that made Abraham the father of faith, enabled God to raise Joseph to a high position and made Him choose David instead of Saul.
1. Obedience to the Word of God
If Satan comes and tempts you to start taking drugs and kill the neighbour, it is hopefully easy for you to say no and keep to the Word of God, but he knows that if he can tempt you to be disobedient in small things, bigger things will come after a while.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
God dismissed Saul from the position of king because he was not careful in obeying what God had asked him to do. Saul had received instructions from God about what he should do, and he did “almost” everything just like He had said. When the war was won, he took the best sheep and cows, but killed what was worthless. It might sound reasonable, but that was not what God had asked him to do.
1 Samuel 15:13-15
When Samuel reached him, Saul said, "The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord's instructions." But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?" Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest."
Saul did not have bad intentions by taking some of the war spoils, but the problem was that God is more interested in our obedience in small daily things than obedience in big decisions every now and then. If we are first obedient in the small daily things, we will be obedient in the greater things.
1 Samuel 15:22
But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
Our obedience in the daily walk reveals our loving relationship with God, and when He sees our obedience in these things He knows that our heart is totally with Him.
John 14:21
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.
2. Faithfulness
Faithfulness is not just about being true to your spouse, but it is a lifestyle expressed in everything you do.
Proverbs 28:20
A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.
Faithfulness brings a rich blessing, but not everybody enjoys this blessing. It is namely in the nature of faithfulness that you have to continue doing what you should do, even when you are not feeling like it – and this is not always easy.
Joseph was careful in obeying God, even in small things, and he faithfully did his best – no matter if he was a son in the house, Potiphar’s slave or a prisoner. Since he had this attitude, God blessed everything he did.
Genesis 39:2-4
The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
God noticed David’s obedience and faithfulness when it came to small and insignificant things such as taking care of sheep, and He chose him to be the shepherd for Israel – He got evidence that David was a man according to God’s heart. Abraham remained faithful to God’s promise about a son so he proved that obedience to Him was still the most important thing in his life.
Do not, therefore, take lightly the “small and insignificant things”, do not take a light attitude to your daily life. Your faithfulness and obedience to God lays a foundation for something bigger.
Luke 16:10
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
1 Comment
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Comment by Barry Woodward on April 7, 2008 at 3:38pm - Thank you Ronald..........this was written with excellence.
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Ray Comfort's Blog
This is What You are Saying...
"I sometimes have trouble telling right from wrong. I just thought maybe we could work toward an America in which no one wants an abortion as opposed to making it illegal and having people get it anyway in very dangerous environments. That's just how I see it. I guess I do want it both ways. I want to be both pro-life in terms of my personal life and pro-choice in terms of how I vote." KaitlynKaitlyn. I appreciate your honesty. However, this is in essence what you are saying, "I want a German in which no one wants to kill Jews as apposed to making it illegal and having them killed in very dangerous environments. I want to keep Jews alive in terms of my personal life and have them murdered in terms of how I vote." Nice.
Your "I sometimes have trouble telling right from wrong" pinpoints your problem. Atheism has no moral anchor. There’s no absolute right or absolute wrong. That’s why you can advocate murder and not feel bad about it, all in the name of compassion. In one sense, you may be right about not having a soul. So Kaitlyn, where is your conscience? Why have you so hardened it? If I were in your shoes I would very quickly cry out to God for His forgiveness, and trust Jesus Christ before it’s too late. Once you know His mercy, and once you let His love into your cold heart, you will be horrified that any human being could sink so low as to advocate the killed of children in the womb.
Resolution to the Argument
The issue of which is correct (evolution or Intelligent Design) is solved instantly, the moment any truth-seeking person humbles him or her self, repents of sin (read Matthew 5:21-30) and trusts Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior. But many of you aren’t seeking the truth. You prefer to believe a lie because you love your sins. It’s as simple as that. See John 8:31-32. You are Kidding
For those of you who still accuse me of misrepresenting the theory of Darwinian evolution, please check out this imaginary drawing from, The Future is Wild, a publication by leading evolutionists in which they imagine what fish and animals will look like in millions of years. The pictured "megasquid" is the place that evolution will take the common squid--a "cephalopod" (there are around 786 distinct living species of cephalopods) in a 100 million years. This is a squid transitioning into another species--a much larger oxygen-breathing, land-dwelling animal, with elephant-like legs. These creatures developed lungs because (over millions of years) "at last, cephalopods had discovered an efficient means of breathing air." I guess their gills didn't cut it for them. So both the male and female evolved lungs while under the water and crawled up on the land together.
This is nothing to do with "common ancestory." This is one species turning into another.
These men imagine the future, and Darwin imagined the past. Both are science fiction. . . . and evolutionists have the gall to call such wild speculation "science."
The theory is nothing but a joke, but the issue is so great it's not at all funny.
Species to Species Definition
"'I have read most of Ray’s books, seen most of his videos and heard hundreds of his witness encounters, and as of yet have never caught him in a lie.' Then you are willfully ignoring data. Mr. Comfort engages in demonstrable dishonesty when he makes mention of transitional fossil forms, as he misrepresents the meaning of transitional in the context of fossils." DimensioI am often accused of lying, especially when it comes to saying that there are no "species-to-species" transitional forms. Before I explain what I mean, it’s important to know that there is some confusion as to the meaning of the word "species." This is what the dictionary says of the word: "Biology: the major subdivision of a genus or subgenus, regarded as the basic category of biological classification, composed of related individuals that resemble one another, are able to breed among themselves, but are not able to breed with members of another species." Wolves, coyotes and German shepherds are of the same species (the canine family or "kind"), but they can't breed with cats or tigers (which are the felidae family or "kind").
When I say that there are no species-to-species transitional forms in the fossil record, I am saying that nowhere will you find a skeleton of a cat evolving into a dog, or a chicken evolving into a fish, or a horse into a cow, no matter how long you go back in history.
As the Bible so rightly says, every animal brings forth "after its own kind." Both in the creation we see around us (and in creation we see in locked into the historical fossil record) is evidence against, not for, the theory of Darwinian evolution. All of nature screams of intelligent design. All of it. None even hints of Darwinian evolution. If you think that’s a lie, then so be it. God is my judge.
Today's Athiest Memory Verse
"Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31). © 2008 Created by Pastor Vince & Laura Rizzo
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