The Invisible WarEgzanp

The Little Things Count

God uses little things to test your integrity. We think it’s the big things in life that create a leader — no. The big crises in life reveal leadership, but leadership is not built in the big things of life. It’s built in the small things of life. That’s where integrity shows up — in the stuff that nobody sees, in the stuff behind the scenes. In the small, unseen, unspectacular choices of life where you do the right thing even though nobody’s ever going to see it.

Faithfulness requires integrity, and God tests your integrity in the little things.

In Luke 16:10 Jesus says, “Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones; whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones” (GNT). He’s saying your public blessing is determined by your private integrity.

Every time a politician has a scandal, you can always count on his defenders to come out and say this: “It really shouldn’t matter what a guy’s private life is like.” Have you ever heard that one? “It really shouldn’t matter what a guy does in his private life. It hasn’t a thing to do with him as a leader.”

It has everything to do with him as a leader! Because if a man lies to his wife, he’ll lie to his constituents. Believe me! If he’ll lie to his best friend, to whom he said, “Till death do us part,” he will cheat on you, voter! Count on it!

My public blessing as a leader comes because of private integrity that nobody ever sees. Your public blessing as a person comes from your private integrity that nobody will ever see. God uses little things to test our integrity.


This devotional © 2014 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.