A Little Golden Nugget

As I was reading Nehemiah 7 in my quiet time this morning, this simple verse jumped out at me.  V.2 - "i put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani (remember, he was the one who gave a report to Nehemiah about the destruction of Jerusalem), along with Hananiah (do we really need to have that close of names here?  I mean the difference between those two are ah!) the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most people do."  I think that verse is powerful and here is why:

The Lord is always reminding me the power of being faithful with the little or small things.  If you are faithful with the little things, then you are seen as trustworthy in His eyes.  If we aren't faithful with small things, then why on earth would He give us more.  That is simply good wisdom.  Well, let's look at what Hanani is now in charge of:  JERUSALEM.  That is a big task.  Why does Nehemiah feel comfortable with his brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem?  Because Hanani carried out a small task in Nehemiah chapter 1, that was significant in the eyes of the Lord...which got the ball rolling for the restoration of Jerusalem.  It happens because the Lord used a moment when Hanani just simply carried out a message of truth to Nehemiah and that message created a spark that turned into a forest fire within Nehemiah.  If Hanani could carry out that small task because of its significance, then why on earth would he not be trusted to carry out being in charge of Jerusalem? 

And why Hananiah?  Integrity and feared God - integrity is really another way of saying faithful with the little, is it not?  If we can be great stewards with the very little we have, then we are trustworthy to be faithful with more.

Now, we have to fight against the battle of being faithful with little just to get more, because we do have corrupted minds that think that way and of course, the Lord is not fooled.  So our challenge is to be faithful with the small things...PERIOD, regardless if anything else comes our way or not.  That is what moves the heart of the Lord and whatever He decides to do with that is His call anyways.

So let's be faithful with the little things today!  Thanks Hanani and HananiAH.