There Go the Little Things

Sorry, it has been awhile since I last wrote. It is because I have not had a day off since the last time a wrote a blog, almost two weeks, and I have been supper busy. I was even having trouble fitting in a quite time. It seamed that every time I tried to sit down with God to read, write, or pray, something would always come up and stand in the way. Satan was definitely trying to attack my schedule. He even broke to alarm clocks to prevent me to wake up early and do it like normal :). All that is fixed now. I found a new way to get myself up early and have time to get in the word. Please continue to pray that my time with God continues to stay very intentional while I am here cause without that so much falters.

The other reason I have not written in awhile is God has been pretty much teaching me the same thing for the past week, and it has taken me the past week to process it and actually figure out what He is trying to say. So it starts here with the little things. For the past week I God has been reviling to me 'the little things' and the importance of these. What does this mean? Well I will get to that or at least try to, but even I am not completely sure.

It all started with just short little voices or intentional understandings from the Holy Spirit.

The grander of Breath and Life.....

We are sitting in one of the Hope program houses (the homes where teens who grew up in the children's homes have a chance to pursue a high school and college education) celebrating one of the staff kids birthdays (Kinsey Couch). We gathered together, Mexicans and Americans alike, as one family celebrating the life God gave one individual. I have never been one to take a birthday as a big deal. However, this time the Spirit gave me a new meaning for birthdays. They are no longer chances to eat cake and play games. A birthday is a celebration of life and breath. Standing in the house I came to the realization that I to often over look the importance and the heaviness of the simple fact that I have both breath and life. It is often viewed by me and I know many others as a LITTLE THING. The Spirit spoke to me and said this is a little thing to you, take notice to the little things, meditate on the little things, understand the blessings of the little things.

The importance of shoes... zapatos.....

I was standing worshiping God last Monday night during a beautiful Monterrey summer sunset. I was perfectly comfortable in my lovely leather flip flops standing on sharp, hard rocks. I was completely unaware of the protection which my shoes gave me and the comfort they instilled on my feet. As the Spirit continued to lead me further and further into worship, He asked me or commanded me to take off my shoes. I, being a intellectual being immediately said, 'Why would I do that God? These Rocks are sharp which would cause some slight discomfort in my fleshy feet'. He quickly and directly responded, 'Just take of your shoes'. So reluctantly I took my shoes off and immediately God spoke. These shoes are a blessing. Millions of people in this world live their life without this blessing. The Spirit spoke to me and said this is a little thing to you, take notice to the little things, meditate on the little things, understand the blessings of the little things.

The fresh smell of a new clean shirt.....

So it was Wednesday and I was serving in Rio 1 again. It was the end of the day and we had some donations to give out. So we set a system for which the donations would be handed out in both an affective and fare method. Everyone would receive a brand new shirt which had been printed and brought down by one of the groups. Almost every time someone would come through the line to receive their new shirt, they would smother their senses with the scent of fresh vibrant linen as they held their face against the new shirt. God spoke to me and told me that I better like the smell of my clean shirts because they are a blessing. The Spirit spoke to me and said this is a little thing to you, take notice to the little things, meditate on the little things, understand the blessings of the little things.

As you can tell God continued to pound into my head the importance of the little things. He wants me to pay attention to them, ponder them, understand them, and know that they are blessings. It is so easy to get caught up in life and forget how blessed we are in so many different ways. My application for this was to walk through my day and find one common or little thing in my life and thank God for it and be aware of its existence as a blessing. It is unbelievable the things God has showed me that are blessings. I had never spent time to thank him for most of these things.

However, the most important thing that God was trying to teach about the little things was involving the works that he does in me. To often have I diminished the importance of God's early works in my life because I feel like He has so much greater things in store ahead. I think 'oh well the things that happened in high school were okay, but God is really going to move when I am in college' or 'college will be a good time to serve Him, but when I am graduated and have a job I can really make a difference in the world'. You get the point. To often I ignore or diminish the little works or the beginings that God does in my life.

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.... Zechariah 4:10

I often daily take God's daily works in my life and diminish them to minuscule things. As we can tell by the this verse in Zechariah it is these small things which bloom into grand God glorifying stories.

I challenge you to rejoice in the small works God does in you for it is from these small works that God brings about grand stories.

Thanks for your continued prayers.....

Andrew