All too often, gossip, silence, and exclusion serve just these purposes, cutting off the prophetic from the congregation.  This is what the Apostles were doing to this one man "caught healing."  They were demanding that Jesus hobble his powerful works because he wasn't one of them.

We can stop our pettiness by taking four actions:

1. Get out in the harvest.

Recognize the crisis in harvesters and the ripeness of the harvest.  If you don't bring the harvest in during its due season, it will not just sit out there and stay ripe.  This is the harvest time and we need laborers.  Let's be one and pray for more!

2.  Quit defending the faith and take the offense in outreach.

Rest with Gamaliel, the wise Pharisee who trained Saul.  In Acts 5:38 he said that God doesn't need us to defend his name; he is quite capable of that himself.  If someone's work is of God, it will continue.  If not, it will cease.

3. Recognize the signs of pettiness in our life and flee them.

If we are surrounded by ducks and quack; it usually means we are a duck.  If those around us are petty and small, guess what...

We must flee such people!  Instead, we should move in the company of giants, heading towards the outer boundaries of our "known world."  If we seek out people who don't have time or use for gossip, then we will be forced to live at their level.  They will hold our behavior and conversation to a higher standard and we will either grow to meet those standards or begin talking behind their backs as well.  Let us hope it is the former.

4. Maintain the habits of faith.

We must maintain the habits of faith:

a. Pray constantly,
b. Hunger for God's Word,
c. Maintain a small group of accountability, and
d. Be in personal relationship with "least of these." 

Attending to these habits keeps us from becoming small-minded and hard-hearted.