7/9/12
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SMALL
CHOICES
Imagine, you’re on the way home from work. You’re in a hurry because you’ve invited a couple of friends to stop by for a little get-together, and there’s not much time left before they’re due to arrive at your house. But you remember you need to pick up a few things, so you swing into the grocery store. You thought this would be quick, but the aisles are crowded and the check-out lines are long. So once you get to the cashier you just hand her a $20 bill as she scans your things, and when she starts to count out your change, you just grab it, clutch it in your fist and head for the door. As you sit down in the car and put the shopping bag on the seat, you finally open your hand to put the money away so you can drive. That’s when you notice you’ve been given $1 too much change. Here’s the question: What do you do? Think about this seriously and try to answer honestly. You’re in a hurry, and it’s only a dollar. What do you do?
Will you, A): Take the time to go back in the store, wait in line again, and return the dollar to the cashier? Or will you, B): Think of some excuse for not doing that right now, then go on your way? After all: you are in a hurry; it’s only a dollar; it’s the cashier’s fault, not yours; and, you can always give the dollar back when you come shopping again next week (if you remember).
Now that you’ve made your decision, let me add another factor to consider. Suppose I say that whatever choice you make in answer to this question will be used in deciding whether or not you get to go to Heaven. Would adding this condition cause you to change your answer? If so, why? Do you feel that if it’s just an inconsequential matter then you can do what you really think; but if it’s something with repercussions then you have to make the choice that others will think is “right”? Know this: it’s the decisions you make when you feel no one is looking that reveal the truth about your character. So if you really want to know someone, look at their small choices. The Bible says in Mt 25:21 & Lk 19:17, it is the person who is faithful in small things who can be trusted with large things.
Consider Adam & Eve in Eden. There they were living in a Garden with a hundred fruit trees around them. They had as much quantity and variety as they could want. They lacked nothing. What test was then asked of them? “Ninety-nine trees are open to you; only one is closed.” What could possibly be easier?! They didn’t need that one; and there was no legitimate reason to desire it. This was a very easy requirement. Perhaps since the request was so simple, Adam & Eve did what humans so often do – they thought if it’s small, it must be unimportant. Yet, as was seen, it carried very large consequences.
Don’t make this same mistake yourself. Just because an issue seems insignificant and is presented in a gentle voice, that doesn’t mean it can be disregarded. We’re told in 1Ki 19:12 that God speaks to us with a “still, small voice.”
Imagine you have found yourself at a fork in the road trying to choose which way, and you’re starting to think you might like to go to the left. Perhaps if a thundering voice from Heaven shouted down, “Take the path on the right, or I will smite you,” maybe you would consider doing as directed. But Is 30:21 tells us we will only hear a soft word saying, “this is the way; walk in it.” So we may then feel at liberty to disregard the advice and follow our own inclinations.
This is the situation all are facing today: a soft voice is presenting a small request; but the consequences are huge, and eternal. The Holy Spirit is calling to everyone’s conscience. Each one is deciding for himself or herself whether or not to accept this call as coming from God. There is an endless number of excuses one can come up with to justify ignoring the request. “I’m not sure it’s God. My church tells me something different. It would be risky to follow that suggestion. I don’t want to change.” And so on, ad infinitum.
However, the consequences of refusing God are far greater than most consider, until it’s too late. The claim, “I rejected You in good faith,” will not save you. Saying that your doctrines advised you to mistrust anything non-traditional because in the last days even the “very elect will be deceived” (Mt 24:24), will not be accepted as a valid excuse. How do you know it isn’t the doctrine of the elect which is deceiving people, and that the rejected voice isn’t bringing the correction needed to be saved? This is a difficult question. The only safe answer is to know the voice of God. Know His voice so that you don’t reject it.
Jn 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and follow Me.”
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