Majoring on the Minor

Main Scripture:  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Matt 23:23 (ESV)

In this scripture Jesus is condemning the Pharisees for being so preoccupied with the minor things of the law and neglecting the things that were most important. The Pharisees in addition to tithing ‘grain, new wine and oil” also tithed garden herbs. Now Jesus was not telling them not to tithe on these things but he was  pointing out to them that they put so much emphasis on these things yet they neglected justice (being fair and righteous), mercy (compassion, forgiveness, kindness, understanding) and faithfulness (faith in God, loyalty and true to the things of God and your neighbours).

How many of us are like the Pharisees today? Do we knit pick on the small things and not focus on the major things?

I had a situation in my life for quite a number of years, where there is a person who irritated me so badly, sometimes I felt like tearing my hair out. I thought this person was just innately bad and wanted nothing good for me. As such I found that I was harbouring, unforgiveness, dislike and anger in my heart. I justified this by using the past experience I had with the person, where she would do things to hurt me for no apparent reason. I fasted and prayed about the situation, it got better then got worst. It had reached the point where even if the person was offering me help or advice I rejected it because she was a bad person in my eyes. I started knit picking and the smallest thing the person did I complained or hit back at her.

One night I had a dream where I was in a situation and the person was helping me out and I just could not receive her help because of what I had in my heart. In my dream there were a lot of ants because it was about to rain. When I sought to find out what all this ants meant, I found out that ants in your dream meant that you allowed the small things to bother you too much. This was an eye opener for me.

Moral of the story, focusing on these small things resulted in:

·         Years of a bad relationship, unforgiveness, dislike and anger

·         This person was not able to see Christ through me because of how I treated her. I also think that this affected how she saw other Christians.

·         Missed opportunities, this person have a wealth of wisdom that I could learn from however, because of the small things I wasn’t able to see when she was trying to help. More importantly, it was a missed opportunity to minister to her about the love of Christ.

·         Allowing the actions of the person to control my reactions. There is a saying that goes “he who angers you controls you.”

I have since passed that and pray that God will give me a second chance to make an impact on this person’s life and that she will see Christ through me.

Ladies stop focusing on the small things in your life, focus on those things that are major. Love your neighbours, submit to your husbands, nurture your children, Love God with all your heart and make an impact on the lives of those around you.

Have A God Filled Day Ladies

Let’s Pray,

Lord we pray for your forgiveness today for focusing on those things which are minor and neglecting the things that are weightier such as loving you and our neighbours. Teach us how to us your way and guide us accordingly.

In Jesus Name

Amen