“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28
John Newton wrote: “The promise is express and literally true, that all things, universally and without exception, shall work together for good to them that love God. But they work together;— the smallest as well as the greatest events have their place and use; like the many stones in the arch of a bridge, where no one stone would by itself be useful, but every one in its place is necessary to the structure and support of the arch…”
Let’s think about TIME. Time is a thing although unseen. Seconds are little things but they add up into minutes; then minutes into hours, hours into days, days into months, months into years, years into decades, and on and on and on…! How do we make use the Lord’s gift to us of those seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, decades? Is there really any little thing in our life? Doesn’t the Lord require us to be good stewards of even little things. Don’t many of our thoughts, decisions, actions occur in those little ‘seconds’ or little ‘minutes’? Are there things that are so little that God doesn’t notice or bother with them? The answer of course, is NO! How careless we tend to be when we view things as small and little.
We should take great comfort in the fact that the Lord of all things causes all things to work together according to His purpose and for His glory, even though we fail in so many ways. We strive to be wise stewards, but we find ourselves weak when handling the treasures entrusted to us. We surely need Him every second of every minute just to keep us from waste, error and sin. Our best thoughts and actions can only come from His grace and providential working for us and in us.
There is no telling how great is His protection of us each of those little seconds, — from evil influences, from physical harm, or perhaps from flattering deceitful thoughts which SELF wants to use in attempts to dethrone the great Savior and King of our heart.
Little things matter; a smile, a kind word, the grasping of a little child’s hand in love, a touch, a sigh, a glance, a moment of hesitation…..
May we all start today, this little day, praying more, reading God’s Word more, meditating on Him more. Let us treasure every second and ask the Lord to cause us to see every small and little thing as something for which we must an account. A few minutes may be a little thing to us, but if used to tell a lost soul about the Lord and Savior of sinners, it can mean life now and life eternal. May He, who causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose, work in us to be good and faithful servants and stewards.
So, how do you view little things? Little seconds? Little minutes? Don’t all of those seconds and minutes eventually add up to a lifetime?
“The Lord is Maximus in minimis, ‘Great in little things.’
Therefore fear not; only believe.”
–John Newton