It's The Little Things

Anyone can observe, Biblically and in life, that everything is geared for one thing, trusting God.

Even when someone understands and accepts Jesus Christ, all of their daily circumstances offer challenges to either trust Him, or not. Sometimes these challenges seem impossible, and others are just small and rather irritating.

Me, I find the hard ones easier, but the small ones harder.

It seems so much easier when a problem is impossible for me. I have no choice but to trust Him or collapse and die.

Yet, when I'm just puttering along and say, fixing my car, the small problems can get me so angry that I throw my tools down and start yelling at God "WHY!!!?"

Anyone who has ever dropped an important bolt down onto the splash cover under the engine can agree...especially when you do it several times, and smash your fingers trying to reach for it so you don't have to get under the car and remove that God aweful, stupid cover!!

"@#$%&* @$#^&*%$#!!!"

Yeah, this is where the rubber hits the road.

It is the everyday challenges that make your trust in God grow the most. Without them, you would never be able to stand on the days where Godzilla comes out of the sea and starts stomping directly toward your house.

"God doesn't care about the little things."

Have you not read the Bible? David's whole life is written there. There were many small struggles He faced. It does mention some if them. David even mentions them as challenges that definately helped him face bigger ones.

1 Samuel 17:32-37

32. David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."

33. Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

34. But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,

35. I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.

36. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.

37. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."

God wants us to trust Him. Building trust is relational, it happens naturally when you interact with someone who is trustworthy. God IS trustworthy. Though trust seems to be a mental thing, a logical progression, there is much more to it.

If it was just a mind thing, it seems to me that God could easily just show up everytime you have a problem. "Oh, look, you dropped that bolt, here, let me miraculously get it for you!"

Boy, that would be nice! Basically a life with zero problems. Yet, it doesn't happen that way. Even for many of the big problems. "Major bummer, Godzilla destroyed my house, killed my family and ate my dog! Where were you God!?"

God IS in control...of everything. He is not limited by Satan, or us in any way. He is also good and beyond brilliant. For whatever purpose this world was created, it is running exactly the way He wants it to.

If you think otherwise, you don't have a large enough view of God's capability. Being outside of time and space alone would enable Him to always correct for any "mistake".

"Oh look, because I put that tree in the garden...well, I'll just go back and remove the tree!" "Blast that serpent! I'll just rewind, and not create him!" "Oops! My servant dropped an important bolt, I'll just back up, and give him a better grip!"

Do you trust God?

Do you understand His power?

If you can't swallow the basics you may very well get lost in a direction that is horribly unbiblical just like the Sadiccees, who didn't believe in any afterlife.

They were wrong, and Jesus pointed it out.

Matthew 22:23-33

23. That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.

24. "Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him.

25. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.

26. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.

27. Finally, the woman died.

28. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"

29. Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

30. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

31. But about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you,

32.`I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

33. When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

Many errors being taught, and pushed, are due to a simple misunderstanding of God's power and a limited knowledge of scripture.

The Book talks about how big God is. How unlimited He is. How directly involved He is. I believe that, much of the trouble lies in our refusal to accept His complete control, because of the little, daily, irritations!

It is rather hard to swallow the idea that a good God would want me to drop a bolt. It's like He is some cosmic prankster sitting back with the Angels, "Watch this! I'm gonna make him drop that bolt... Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

He does nothing without a good reason. Oh, and if you are not yet comfortable with God being utterly in control yet... you can say He doesn't ALLOW anything without a good reason.

For a God who can do anything He wants, and no one can stop Him; yes, if something bad happens, He knew it, could have stopped it, or prevented the circumstances from ever getting there in the first place!

So, at the very least, He is "allowing" bad things to happen. Why is it so hard to take the final step? He is not allowing, He is orchestrating! Me, I think it is because of the lie that we can be like God. The lie from the devil himself. God is in control. This is what we want, control.

Yet all of life's problems, if you look at them, are geared and directed at proving one simple truth...we are not controlling squat!

The truth then becomes obvious.

He is controlling everything.

Yes, we make decisions, just like Saul and his servant looking for a donkey. Deciding to go this way or that. Deciding to go talk to the seer named Samuel. That same Samuel, who God said to him, "This time tomorrow, I WILL send you a man..." How did HE send the man? Though the decisions, and choices of two clueless idiots!

Look, it's not the only reference in scripture. You can see the same circumstances over and over. God IS in control, and God is good.

Accepting this, walking in this, takes faith, and faith IS what God wants.

It's OK to lose it when the stupid bolt falls. To get it, you are going to spend an extra hour to jack up the car and remove the stupid cover! Yes, it is a royal pain. Yes, God is in control of the circumstances and wrote that very scenario to challenge your faith. Yes, He knows what He is doing, so it will be effective.

Do you want to have less annoying challenges? It's easy, get mad, but swallow your pride, and humbly accept that God Himself is adding another hour to your project.

"Ugh, OK Lord, I see that I need a challenge today.. Thanks for being a good Father."

I know, I know, it seems impossible...

Well, it is good to have a goal, and God loves to show off in the impossible.