Stop Scrolling!

Social media has become not only a source of communication and connecting, but of entertainment - a way to pass the time and keep oneself occupied. Research done in the USA during 2017 showed that people checked their phones between eighty and three hundred times a day, depending on the age bracket they fall in. People want to know what is trending and they are frequently scrolling through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to find the next exciting and new thing. No wonder we grow impatient with God when He appears to be silent or seemingly slow to respond to our request for guidance and direction in matters pertaining to our lives. We have grown accustomed to instant feedback on whatever we type into our Google browser.

I read something this week that rang true to me. It said that, if it feels like God is not speaking, go back to the last thing He did say to you. There may be something that needed a response from you, something that you needed to obey. God may be waiting for you to do the last thing He told you before telling you the next.

Simple obedience is powerful, especially obedience in the small things. Jesus valued the small things and the little bits that no one would deem adequate or significant. He took a small lunch box of five loaves and two small fish when a little boy surrendered it to Jesus, and did a great miracle (John 6:9). He applauded a poor widow who brought all she had, which was only a little bit of money by human standards (Luke 21:1-4).

He said that all we needed for us to accomplish great things for His Kingdom was faith as small as a mustard seed – the smallest of the seeds (Matthew 17:20). Jesus said that not even one of the little sparrows are forgotten before God (Luke 12:6. And He said, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much” (Luke 16:10)

Stop ‘scrolling!’ Before looking for the next new thing from God, the next prophecy, the next instruction, the next exciting venture, let’s take time to investigate the last thing He told us or asked us to do, and be a good steward even of the little things God brings across our path.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You are a God who speaks, and a God who sees even my smallest acts of obedience and service. Please help me to be a good steward of the things You entrust to me to obey, and to be a doer of Your Word in both small and great things alike. Amen.