Summer is a great time to reflect on how we’ve been living this past year and how we can grow deeper in our walk with the Lord. This fourth devotion looks at the “little things” that define our character in Christ:

IN WORD – Maybe it’s because it happens in little moments that we are able to look at it without concern. What am I talking about? Our struggle with sin. It happens in the little moments of life, so it is easy to see what is a very serious thing as not such a big deal. Let me explain. You and I don’t live only in big moments. We probably make only a couple of big, life-altering decisions our whole lives. Not many of our biographies will find their way into the history books. Years after we die, as our descendants gather for reunions, they will struggle to remember even the big events of our lives. We all live in little, unnoticed, unremarkable, mundane moments of life, and because we do, it’s very easy to back away from the seriousness of our struggle with sin that is constantly being revealed in those little moments.
The little moments of your life are profoundly important precisely because they’re little moments that happen to be the address where you live. Think about it this way. The character of any person’s life is not shaped by two or three grand, big moments of life. A person’s character is formed in ten thousand little, mundane moments of everyday life. It’s the character that is formed in those little moments of life that determines how you think and respond in the few big moments of life that you encounter. So those “little sins” are not so little after all: the nasty retort, the “me first” pride, the flash of lust at the mall, the anger at someone who got in your way, those little bitter thoughts, your addiction to little pleasures, the impatience with a loved one. Sure, they all happen in little moments that go by so quickly you may fail to notice them, but they depict a deeply needy heart. They remind you and me that we have not risen above our need for rescuing grace. They tell us that what we have found in Christ we still desperately need. They call us to be aware and to be serious; the war for our hearts is not over. Our need for a conquering Savior has not ended.
IN DEED – These little moments actually point the finger at something that is huge—our struggle with sin and our need for the grace that can be found only in our Savior, the King, the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. “I still need to be rescued from me because as long as sin remains, I’ll be drawn to desire, think, say, and do what God names as evil.” - Paul David Tripp (in “New Morning, New Mercies” by Paul David Tripp)

If you have a chance to see a “shooting star,” that is, a meteor, while you are outdoors this summer, take time to reflect on today’s devotion. As meteors can fall into earth’s gravity by just a small nudge, so too can the smallest temptations lead to outright sin. Tripp is right in that most Christians fail not because of big sins, but the accumulation of insidious small sins.
Take time to read the book of James this week and ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify any small sins that may lead you astray. It can be a hurtful thought toward a colleague or a glance at something you shouldn’t be looking at. Ask the Holy Spirit to steer you back on course and keep you in God’s good and perfect will. Have a blessed week! – from Japan, Pastor Sam