It was always that way. He could always find a purpose, a reason for pushing through one more day, one more week.”
–Stephen Bly (Hard Winter At Broken Arrow)
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
–1 Corinthians 15:58 (NKJV)
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There is so much hatred today. In fact, more than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. It is one thing to dislike someone or to not agree with their ideas, but to make outrights lies, accusations and threats is beyond proper bounds. President Bush was severely attacked for his faith, more so than any President before him. Vice-President Pence is lambasted continually for his faith. I wonder, I just wonder, has the nation turned that far from God that they do no longer want His blessings? I came across the following this week while reading. It was a call to prayer by President Lincoln, not long after the battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg (July 15, 1863).
“I invite the people of the United States…to invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit…to guide the counsels of the government with wisdom adequate to so great a national emergency, and to visit with tender care and consolation throughout the length and breadth of our land all those who, through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges have been brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate, and finally to lead the whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission to the Divine will back to the perfect enjoyment of union and internal peace.” (Terry Tuley, Battlefields of Blessing: The Civil War)
Where is the seeking of God’s guidance? How far have the people slid away? I read where Mariano Rivera, the great pitcher and Hall of Famer, now a pastor, was called a racist for his support of Israel. Get that – a black preacher, being called a racist for supporting the nation of Israel. He stood his ground.
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I also came across a portion of an article by Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) a great minister, poet, author, and hymnodist of the 19th century from Scotland. This is worth pondering over and over. God’s Way of Holiness: “Little” Things, is the title and below is an edited version.
“With many of us the Christian life has not gone on to maturity. ‘Ye did run well, who did hinder you?’ Ours has been a work well begun, but left unfinished; a battle boldly entered on, but only half fought out. Is not thus Christ dishonored? Is not His gospel misrepresented, His cross denied, His works slighted, His example set at nought?
“…But a holy life is made up of a multitude of small things. It is the little things of the hour, and not the great things of the age, that fill up a life like that of Paul and John, like that of Rutherford or Brainerd…. The true symbols of a holy life are the little constant sunbeam, not the lightning. The avoidance of little evils, little sins, little inconsistencies, little weaknesses, little follies, little indiscretions and imprudencies, little indulgences of self and of the flesh–the avoidance of such little things as these goes far to make up at least the negative beauty of a holy life. Add to this list other littles: little equivocations or aberrations from high integrity, little touches of shabbiness and meanness, little indifferences to the feelings or wishes of others, little outbreaks of temper, or crossness, or selfishness, or vanity.
“In their place we should give attention to the little duties of the day and hour, in public transactions or private dealings, or family arrangements; to little words, and looks, and tones; little benevolences, or forbearances, or tendernesses; little self-denials and self-restraints; little plans of quiet kindness for others. These are the active developments of a holy life, the rich and divine mosaics of which it is composed…
“It is of small things that a great life is made up.” (They Walked With God)
People talk about doing “great things” for the Lord and they cannot even keep the “little things” together. Our job is to be squared away, trained, studied, prepared doing the everyday “little things” in case God needs to call on us for a greater duty. History, and people, might judge you on one or two major things that happen in your life, but it is important to realize that one event does not make a life. Is David to be judged on his slaying of Goliath or his sin with Bathsheba, or the everyday things that made him a man after God’s heart?