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“Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones; whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones.”
Luke 16:10 (GNT)
God uses little things to test your integrity. It’s not just the big things that count—even though that’s what the world wants you to focus on. But the Bible tells us that God is looking at the smallest details of our lives to see if we are faithful to him.
This is true in every area of life, including leadership. We often think it’s the big things in life that create a leader. No! The big crises in life reveal leadership, but leadership is not built in the big things of life. It’s built in the details of life. That’s where integrity shows up—in the stuff that nobody sees, in the stuff behind the scenes, in the small, unseen, unspectacular choices of life where you do the right thing, even though nobody’s ever going to see it.
Faithfulness requires integrity, and God tests your integrity in the little things.
Jesus said, “Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones; whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones” (Luke 16:10 GNT). He’s saying your public blessing is determined by your private integrity.
Every time a politician has a scandal, you can always count on that person’s defenders to come out and say, “It really shouldn’t matter what their private life is like.” Have you ever heard that one? “It really shouldn’t matter what a person does in their private life. It doesn’t have anything to do with them as leaders.”
It has everything to do with them as leaders! Why? Because if a man lies to his wife, he’ll lie to his constituents. If a woman lies to her best friend, to whom she said, “Till death do us part,” she will cheat on you, voter! Count on it!
My public blessing as a leader comes because of private integrity that nobody ever sees. Your public blessing as a person comes from your private integrity that nobody will ever see. God uses little things to test our integrity. And faithfulness in the small things will lead to blessings in ways only God can provide.
Talk It Over
With what small thing has God entrusted you to complete or manage with integrity?
How do you treat the “small things” and “large things” differently? How does God want you to treat them?
How do you feel about serving without recognition? What does it say about your motivation?