DON’T BE PETTY

MEMORY VERSE: And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father,if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 2 Kings 5:13

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Daniel 7-12

BIBLE READING: 2 Kings 5:10-14

It is one thing for God to bless an individual; it is another thing for the individual to receive the blessing. It is one thing for God to send help to an individual; it is another thing for the individual to receive the help. A man who is not spiritually sensitive may lose out on God’s blessing. Many of us have missed out on a lot of things due to our spiritual insensitivity. A man of God whilst chatting with his wife suddenly realized that their conversation was gradually turning into an argument which was uncalled for. To make matters worse, what they were arguing about was a very minor issue that didn’t even warrant any argument at all. The man sensed that it was an attack from the devil so he quickly changed the conversation. After, they prayed and went to bed. The next day, whilst eating in his office , the Word of the Lord came to him prompting him to make a call that led to the purchase of their church building. Imagine that he was not spiritually sensitive, their conversation would have grown into a full scale argument. He would have woken up and gone to work in a terrible mood. In that state of mind, he would not have heard the voice of God when the Lord spoke. Be spiritually sensitive at all times. Abstain from anything that could lead to arguments.

Also, a man who is petty may lose out on God’s blessing. In the case of Naaman, his pettiness almost cost him his long desired healing. When he and his servants arrived at the front of Elisha’s house, Elisha sent his servant to tell Naaman to go and dip seven times in River Jordan and he would be healed. Naaman became a petty. 5 Kings 5:11 says, “But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.” He took offence that the prophet could not even honour him by coming out to talk personally to him. How could the prophet send a servant to him? Besides, why River Jordan – a dirty river? Why not beautiful rivers like Abana and Pharpar? The question is does it really matter? What is more important, the prophet coming out to talk to him personally or getting the solution to his problem? What is more important, dipping in Abana and Pharpar or getting healed? Thank God for his servants.2 Kings 5:13 says, “And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father,if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?” If one is not careful, pettiness can shut some of the doors that God has opened to one. How can one get angry because his host gave him a pillow to sleep with instead of two? That’s pettiness. It is pettiness to get angry because you called a person and the person didn't answer your call immediately. What if the person was in the toilet? Or to get angry because your call went to voice mail? Or to get angry because you sent a text message and you didn’t get a response within 5 minutes. If you need to get angry, at least hear the other person’s side of the story. You will find from time to time that people will not meet your expectation of them and when this happens, apply wisdom. There are some minor things you will just have to learn to overlook on your way to the top. There are times you just have to bite your tongue to save a relationship.

NOTE: No one loves to be around a petty person. Pettiness can rob a man of good things.

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Bro Samuel | Reaching the world.