by Pastor Greg Laurie
February 27
The Little Things
“Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval.” (Romans 6:16)
When I was a kid, I collected snakes. I thought they were just great, and I had them in all shapes and sizes. I met a man who collected venomous snakes and had worked in some type of zoo. I really admired him. He had been bitten by a tiger snake, which is the most venomous snake on Earth, even worse than a cobra. This man survived the snakebite because he had been taking serum and had developed an immunity to the tiger snake’s venom. As a result, this man basically thought he was indestructible, that no snake would ever take him down. He actually had cobras that had not been defanged slithering around loose in his house. One day in his home, he was bitten by a cobra and didn’t realize it until later when his leg began to swell. He was rushed to the hospital and died. This man thought that because he had survived the tiger snake’s bite, he didn’t need to worry about cobras. That became his downfall.
Many times it is the little things that bring us down. Some Christians think, “I can handle this. I'm strong. I’ll never fall.” But we need to be careful. When we feel the most secure in ourselves, when we think our spiritual lives are the strongest, our doctrine is the most sound, and our morals are the purest, we should be the most on guard and the most dependent on the Lord. Sometimes the weakest Christian is not in as much danger as the strongest one, because our strongest virtues can become our greatest vulnerabilities.
Copyright © 2003 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.