Faithful With Little
There is a verse in today's readings that I encountered recently while driving down the road. It was a Friday afternoon after work, and I was tired and more than ready for the weekend. As I sat at the stoplight in the turn lane ready to head home, I heard someone knocking on my front passenger window. I jumped a bit as it was rather startling. I was surprised to see a boy knocking on my window in the middle of two other lanes of traffic.
My first thought was "Oh my gosh, I hope this kid doesn't get run over!" I rolled down my window a bit (not too far) and he said, "Mrs. Sempsrott?" I said, "Yes". While he stood in the middle of the road, he told me that he was my student during Covid Lock-up distance learning. I had never met him in person and his hair was bleached when I had him in zoom (in his tiny little box on my screen).
By God's amazing, strategic grace of opening doors, I have now encountered this same boy three different times. He has found me each time! have learned that he needed a teacher that believed in him. I have also learned that God had a lesson for me as well.
As I drove away, I heard the words to a scripture that I memorized in my youth. The Holy Spirit works like that..."Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much" (Luke 16:10a). That was the message that I was to ponder...
Reading our passage brought me back to this unique experience and caused me to contemplate the bigger picture about being "faithful in little and faithful with much". What does that mean to me and to you?
We read about "The Valley of Trouble" where Achan met his demise. He had experienced the Glory of God but then decided to keep some of that glory for himself. It was the valley after his mountain top experience. They had built a remembrance to God for delivering them through the Jordan River, but did he remember?
We see that in the very same chapter, the Israelites defeated their enemies after Achan's sin was purged from the camp. This time God's directions were very different than they were before: "This time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves." (8:2)
Don't you wish God would have said that before Achan's demise? The problem is that HE DIDN’T! However, that really wasn't the problem for Achan or for Ananias and Saphira in the N.T. story. Both disobeyed the Spirit of God and lied about it. There was no repentance and no honesty.
Our passage in Luke 16: 13 spells out the bottom line for our money, our time, our attitudes, and our life goals. "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money."
What is your "little" and what is your "much"? Sometimes we just want to do great things for God, and we are disappointed when it seems that we are struggling to just do the little things.
One year ago, at exactly this time of year, I was hanging on by a "scarlet thread". (See previous post.) During that season of life, our daughter had been hospitalized for 85 days within that year and we had experienced 54 ER/ Urgent Care visits. I was just trying my best day by day to hang in there to teach online. I felt my little "Covid lock-up students" needed me (not a sub) and I knew I needed them! I was often staying in a hospital and would teach from there with my headset on. So, much was going on around me. I prayed for strength each and every day! I finally left work under The Family Leave Act after spring break and did not return that school year. I never got to meet my students in person that year or say goodbye. It was tough, and there was no closure or completion.
Can you imagine my shock to meet this one little student in the middle of the road that day? Add to that, three more meetings at random places and times. Did I mention that my little student had experienced some major issues in the years before being in my class? He had certainly had his share of struggles.
One year later, God gave me a little glimpse of his message to me... I will never know why all of this happened. I often felt hopeless and helpless. The only power I had was like 'the widow's mite'. I just asked each day for the strength to be faithful and to get through one day at a time.
When we have little to nothing. He has much! When we have "much" we need to be reminded of who gave us all that we have, and who receives the glory due! It is like building those "stones of remembrance" that we have been reading about. We build them "lest we be tempted and forget".
I now have a rock of remembrance at the corner of La Brucherie and Main Street each time I pull up to that stoplight and look out over the two lanes to my right and glance at my passenger window.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Yes, God. Faithful in the little. Got it!
You are in charge of the much!
By Betty Predmore
This scripture speaks to me about something we all deal with in various ways to varying degrees... TEMPTATION!
Achan knew God's orders...to not keep anything valuable for himself. But can you just imagine standing there staring at all that silver and gold? Would you be tempted to keep just a little for yourself?
We deal with temptation every day. It is around every corner. It is in the people we spend time with, the things we eat, what we watch on television, how we spend our free time.
Sometimes, the temptations are SO STRONG! It is a real battle.
Apparently it was also a battle for the rich man's manager, who couldn't seem to do the "right thing" with his boss's money. Once caught, the temptation to "get even" was too much.
The second aspect I find is that for every temptation we give in to, there are CONSEQUENCES! An entire family stoned to death and burned...that is quite a significant consequence to one man's betrayal.
Our consequences might not be that drastic, but they are definitely there. Little things that occur because of our poor choices, our giving in to the temptations of the enemy. Some of those prices we pay are greater than others. Hopefully, we learn to stand strong in our temptations as we grow closer to the One who stood strong and battled through every temptation the enemy threw at him.
Oh...to be just like Jesus! May we never stop trying.
