A LITTLE LEAVEN
Joshua 7:10-12
I sometimes just like making pastries. The first time I made doughnut, I thought I had added too much of yeast. Although I didn’t use the normal measurement of flour, I had much dough to fry. Since I had much dough I began to cut into big sizes, which of course made the doughnuts unusually big. Much later I realized it was the small yeast’s effect on the flour that made it to rise to the size I got!
The sin of Achan was like yeast among the children of Israel. The effect of his sin caused them harm and no good. The nation could no longer stand against her enemies in battle; some innocent men even lost their lives because of the sin of one man. Because of these losses, Joshua had to seek God to know the cause of their inability to win in battles. Achan was eventually fished out as the cause of Israel’s failures and his end turned out to be very sad.
Most times when teams lose, it is usually because of an insider who has compromised. Whether it is in a family, a missionary group, a church group, an organization or a sports team, it is the ‘mole’ that lets the team down. When there is opposition within a team, it loses its strength; it will not be able to marshal the necessary force to fight the opposition from outside. This is always the reason for many failures both individually and collectively.
As soon as a Christian is not ‘upright’ within himself, he will not have the motivation for the things of God. He is not upright within because God’s principle of righteousness has been breached. That singular wrong will affect his whole life negatively like yeast. Also, one negative person in a team can drag the whole team down. Once there is no pull in the same direction, things will not work well.
May the Lord keep our hearts upright and our teams united; that we may we become Godly influences in the teams we belong
PRAYER: Let my life have a positive effect on other people