Read: Jeremiah 8:8-9:26, Colossians 3:1-17, Psalm 78:32-55, Proverbs 24:27

Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer. (Psalm 78:35)

 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. (Colossians 3:4)

Relate: It isn’t the big things that get me. I’ve had those in my life. We Richardsons are not strangers to grief. I’ve moved and moved again. I’ve been literally hours from being kicked out of school because I was too far behind in my payments when God provided another miracle. I’ve been in an accident that should have killed me. I’ve been there, done that.

No, it isn’t the big things that get me because they are beyond me. I really have no choice but to look to God in times like those. It is the little things that tend to trip me up. I’m a miserable sinner if I have a cold or a stomach bug. If you chop my leg off I’ll sing His praises but if I stub my toe… God forgive me. When little troubles come I lose my focus. I find myself taking my eyes off of Christ and on to the problem. It is in those things that I think I should be able to handle where I find myself losing my grip.

React: For seven years Israel was under the cruel oppression of the Midianites. Every year at harvest time they would come in and flood over the Israelites plundering and pillaging everything that the Israelites had worked so hard to build and grow. It got to the point that civilization was collapsing. The Israelites had given up on their homes and were living in caves and holes in the ground. When God decided it was time to intervene and bring the victory the first thing he did was reveal Himself. Through a prophet He said, “I brought you out. I rescued you. I drove out your enemies. I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God.”

God wants to have victory in every area of my life. He wants to show His glory through every step of every day. Maybe not for everybody, but for me it is in the small things, the bumps, backaches, and bruises that I need to be most careful. It is in these times that I need most to refocus on just who and how great my God is. In the good times and the really good times, in the bad times and the catastrophes. In the mundane of day to day. In the big things and in the little things, my focus should always be on Him.

Respond: 

God, let me praise You through the paper cuts. Let me hear You through the headaches. Let the weight of Your glory be very real when the hammer misses its target. When I’m sick, when I’m tired, when I’m hurt, help me to look to You. In the little things, in the annoyances of this life, as I groan with creation for a better world, let Your glory be revealed to me and through me.