Maybe it’s because I’m a pastor and I move in certain pastor circles, but it’s become increasingly clear to me that people love to tackle big things while at the same time tripping over little things.

[Tweet “Often we trip over little things while we try to tackle big things.”]

I present Proverbs 3:5-6 as Exhibit A:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Our tendency is to spend time debating the implications of this verse on man’s responsibility versus God’s sovereignty or free will versus fixed destiny. Shoot, we split churches and start denominations over the big things and yet fail to see that it’s the little things that matter most.

Exhibit B? The very tiny word “all.”

Every big thing we debate hinges on it. A simple 3-letter word that somehow holds the power to make or break us. What we do with that little word determines if we are a disciple or delusional.

What I think about the big ideas we love to debate is pointless if I’m not trusting God with all my heart and acknowledging Him in all my ways. If I’m honest (and my guess is this would be true for you, too), I’ve got to spend a lot more time on the little words than the big ones. I mean, there’s no sense debating pre-, mid-, or post- anything if I’m not trusting Him with everything, right?

[Tweet “There’s no sense debating pre-, mid-, or post- anything if we’re not trusting Him with everything.”]

Like Solomon wrote, it’s the little foxes that ruin the vineyards (see Song of Solomon 2:15). Today, pay attention to the little things first, and you’ll have a stronger foundation for the bigger things that come next.

Today is the first day of the second month of the year. It’s also the first day after one of the most productive months of writing that I’ve ever experienced. In fact, I wrote just shy of 9,000 words in January. To put that in perspective, a 200-page book would have around 50,000 words, so I wrote about 20% of a book in one month.

I can tell you’re impressed, but the reality is that I’ve made a commitment to myself to write every day for the year, not just for a month. So as great as last month was, it’s also now a past month. Today is what matters now, and while I could stop and always say that I had a productive month of writing, I wouldn’t be able to say I accomplished the goal.

Interestingly enough, that highlights one of the things that I love the most about the Holy Spirit (which just happens to be something that a lot of believers misunderstand about the Holy Spirit). Most Christians think of the Holy Spirit as the occasional flame thrower. This is especially true if you tend to run in the Pentecostal and Charismatic circles like me because we tend to limit the power of the Holy Spirit to spectacular moments in once-a-week services. But Acts 2:42 shows us the true power of the Holy Spirit, and it isn’t starting power, but staying power.

[Tweet “The power of the Holy Spirit isn’t just starting power, but staying power.”]

Admittedly, I don’t read a lot in the King James Version. But sometimes, a verse translated in the KJV just seems to speak to me, and Acts 2:42 is one of those. It reads:

“And they continued steadfastly…”

This is after 2 pretty significant Holy Ghost moments. The first was at the beginning of the chapter when the early church experienced a Pentecost like no other and actually became the early church, and the second was in the verse right before this when that early church grew by 3,000 members on the same day it was started. As a church planter, that’s the kind of laugh day that you dream about!

These guys had every reason to stop and celebrate. They didn’t need to do anything else or prove anything else or seek anything else. They experienced a touch of heaven that many of us only read about. And yet, the follow up to those moments was fairly mundane. They just continued steadfastly to do the very things they had been doing. But now, they had staying power.

Did you know that studies show that two-thirds of unhappy marriages will become happy within 5 years if people stay married and don’t divorce? Staying power is powerful, and it’s the least talked about aspect of the power we’ve been given from the Holy Spirit.

I’ve continued steadfastly by writing on this first day of the second month in the year of our Lord 2021. What do you need to continue in steadfastly? You’ve got the power. Now, it’s your turn to simply use it to continue.

Have you noticed our tendency to rush? To live our lives at full throttle, rarely stopping long enough to take a breath or to take stock of where we are?

This is the type of lifestyle that gets people to the end of their lives full of regret because by the time they were still long enough to consider how they’d live, they had very little time to live differently.

Socrates has been credited with sayin that the unexamined life is not worth living. I’m thinking that perhaps he had read Lamentations 3:40, which presents an alternative to the unexamined life. The prophet Jeremiah wrote:

“Instead (of complaining about how our lives turned out), let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the Lord.” Lamentations‬ ‭3:40‬ (emphasis mine)

In other words, don’t wait until the end of your life to figure out that the way you were living took you in the wrong direction full the full duration. Learn to examine your life, test the way you’re living. The original word for examine carries the same meaning as dig. It’s work to consider, but a little course correction along the way keeps us from being way off at the end of the course.

[Tweet “A little course correction along the way keeps us from being way off at the end of the course.”]

Today is the last day of the first month of the new year, and it’s a perfect time to stop and ask yourself how you’re doing? What progress have you made toward the plans that you made? Do you need to change the plan?

Take time today to examine your life, your goals, and your progress, and then make the necessary correction. Perhaps, as Jeremiah encouraged, your first correction needs to be turning back to the Lord and trusting Him with your plans.