Being Faithful in the Small Things

Being Faithful in the Small Things — Rick Saenz

"Often I'll instruct one or another of my children to do something, and there is an immediate outpouring of questions: Why do you want that done? Wouldn't it be better to have so-and-so do it? Wouldn't it be even better if we did this other thing? In one sense, these questions are legitimate and reasonable. Often I tell them to do something that could just as well be left undone, or to do something that could be done much more easily by myself or someone else, or to do something that isn't nearly as desirable as some other thing. But in a more important sense, these questions are beside the point, and I tell them so in roughly these words: 'You must not have heard me properly. I didn't say I wanted such-and-such done—I said that I wanted you to do it.'

Too often we mishear God's commands in just the same way. He commands us to worship Him, and we set about making the service more conducive to worship. He commands us to go and make disciples, and we ponder ways to get people into accountability groups that they might be discipled. He commands us to train up our children, and we seek out a school that can educate them properly. It never occurs to us that God might be less interested in our accomplishments than in our obedience—that doing what we've been told to do, however poorly, is preferable to turning that task over to someone who can do it better. "