I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5.

    I have been struggling to put together what I want to write today. I knew right from my first read through what I wanted to focus on, but am having trouble getting it to fit together. Jesus tells us that we need to pay close attention to what we hear of His teaching, of God’s will for us. The more we pay attention to what we understand, the more we will understand. The reverse is also true, the less we do of what we understand we ought to do, the less we understand of what God wants us to do. I have seen the former in my own life and the latter in other people. I want to be clear that my failure to see the latter in my own life may indeed be a product of that very thing. If I lost understanding of God’s will for my life because I failed to do things I understood Him to want, it is unlikely I would recognize it to be happening.

    Jesus tells two parables here about small things having large results, even without us understanding how it happens. We have a natural tendency to want to do big things which will make a big difference. There is nothing wrong with that, but the fact of the matter is that Jesus tells us that that is not how God’s Kingdom works. It is the small things which God uses to change the world, kind words to a stranger, the widow’s two pennies, etc. Small things grow into large things. Sometimes, the small thing we do inspires others to do things for others in a geometric, or even logarithmic, progression. Sometimes, the small things we do inspires others to do larger things. And sometimes, the small things we do open up the opportunity for us to do larger things. Do not try to figure out how the small things will bring about big results, just do them. You may never see all that results from the little things which you do, but do them anyway.