Do something small for God

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” (Luke 16:10)

The Apostle Paul spent a great deal of his Christian life traveling around the Roman Empire, starting churches, raising up leaders, and sharing the gospel with whoever would listen. But as we found out this past Sunday as we were reading through Philippians 1, he also spent significant time in prison, unjustly persecuted for his devotion to Jesus. Incredibly, however, Paul would not even let prison stop him from sharing the gospel to the limited audience he had. He told the palace guard about Jesus, and wrote letters to the churches that he could no longer visit. Paul may have felt like his audience had shrunk, but he was always going to be faithful to serve Jesus with whatever influence he might have.

When I was a youth pastor, one of the best Christian speakers I heard speak was a missionary named David Pierce, who traveled around the world with his band, No Longer Music, bringing the message of Jesus to Satanist clubs, anarchy festivals, and other places you wouldn’t normally expect to find Christians. I will never forget him sharing about a time when he was a young man on a mission trip with Youth With a Mission in Amsterdam. He talked about how the mission team was on a bridge in a very punk-rock section of the city, singing what he felt was a cheesy Christian song called “This is the Day the Lord that has made.” He was so embarrassed and did not want to sing or even be associated with the rest of the team, but after a few minutes of silent protest, he felt like God was communicating to him that if he were not willing to be faithful in this moment, he would never be entrusted with the greater things God had for him. And so he sang, loudly trying to drown out his feelings of shame. And looking back, Pierce shared that he knew that he would not be where he was today if it weren’t for his obedience to God on that bridge.

In Luke 16:10, Jesus tells his disciples that those who can be trusted with very little will be trusted by God with more. Like David Pierce, sometimes people want to do great things for God – speak to the masses, go to a foreign land, bring about a more just society – but they refuse to do the small thing for God that is right in front of them – visit the relative in the nursing home, get to know their neighbor, serve in their church. But the principle remains: be faithful with what God has given to you in the present moment, and He will entrust you with more.

Yes, following Jesus is about taking up your cross, making disciples of all nations, and living as a light to the world. But it’s also about doing the next right thing. It’s about being faithful to Him in the mundane, every day, nonglamorous acts: serving your neighbor, your co-worker, your family member. Remember that even Jesus said “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42).

So go and do something small for God today. Be faithful to Him in the little things, and He will entrust you with more.