Faithfulness in the Small Stuff
Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings—it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which he has engineered for us the very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings. The things Jesus did were the most menial of everyday tasks, and this is an indication that it takes all of God’s power in me to accomplish even the most common task in his way. Can I use a towel as he did? Towels, dishes, sandals, and all the other ordinary things in our lives reveal what we are made of more quickly than anything else. It takes God Almighty incarnate enough to do the most menial duty as it ought to be done. Jesus said, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you,” notice the kind of people that God brings around you, and you’ll be humiliated once you realize that this is actually his way of revealing to you the kind of person you have been to him. Now he says we should exhibit to those around us exactly what he has exhibited to us. You find yourself responding by saying, “Oh, I will do all that once I am out on the missionary field.” Taking on life in this way is like trying to produce the weapons of war while in the trenches of the battlefield—you will be killed while trying to do it. We have to go the “second mile” with God, yet some of us become worn out in the first 10 steps and we say, “I’ll just wait until I get close to the next big crisis in my life.” But if we do not steadily minister in everyday opportunities, we will do nothing when the crisis comes.
–Oswald Chambers
In Luke 16:10, Jesus says, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” This is the principle that Chambers is referring to in today’s devotional. We tend to think the small stuff doesn’t carry the weight of the larger, but faithfulness in the small stuff renders us ready for the larger. Even as “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to lay down his life for the many” (Matt. 20:28), so also, we are called. –DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics