God spells out the course we are to follow if we are to succeed in our faith journey. To me it is very simple, straightforward and clear: God commands us to love him, keep his commandments and we will succeed in our journey. God also reminds us that the potential to go astray is ever-present and this passage reminds of a comment I heard in class when I was preparing to become a deacon in the Order of St. Stephen Deacon.
Our teacher, who is also a pastor, reminded us that as we prepared to complete our studies and venture out in the world to serve the Lord as deacons, we would also be "moving up a notch" on the devil's radar. Our teacher was hoping to sharpen our senses to be prepared that we would now be even more visible to those who wished to distract us from our ministry or tempt us to waiver from our personal faith quest. The truth is that anyone who serves the Lord, be it in the choir, at the altar, in the classroom, filing church paperwork or feeding the hungry, are all subject to the "devil's radar" and will perish if they stray too far.
Each and every one of us has a responsibility to help those who serve the Lord to make sure that they too are nurtured in the Word of God. At our church, in addition to regular weekend services, we have a Wednesday evening service that focuses on prayer and personal worship moments. It has become a haven for those whose busy lives don't always let them bathe in private time with the Lord. Your thought for today is to ask yourself what you are doing to assure that you have your private time with the Lord; to assure that you have reflection time to allow for course adjustments in your own personal spiritual journey. And once you are done with your personal assessment take, no make, the time to assist someone else to stay on course. |
