"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." – 1 Peter 5:8
Some years ago, my parents were driving along a highway in the state of Washington near Mount Adams. A decrepit old barn near the highway caught my dad's attention, and he stopped the car to capture a dramatic picture of the crumbling structure with the majestic mountain behind it.
The barn, preserved on my dad's roll of film, may have been a good barn when it was built. No doubt it had a sturdy foundation and floor, quality beams, and secure siding. However, by the time my parents drove past it, the walls were sagging and half the roof was caved in. What happened? Someone had failed to maintain the structure. When the first chinks in the siding appeared, they were ignored. When the first holes developed in the roof, no one tended to them. When a beam cracked, it was not repaired. And over the years, the barn's condition went from bad to worse.
What a warning to us, when we think about our Christian lives! It is important to start with a good foundation—a real born-again experience. It is crucial to build with the best materials: the gold, silver, and precious stones spoken of in the Bible. However, the building must be maintained! We must be alert to any area that might begin to sag, or a beam that is about to break. The Bible tells us, "We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip" (Hebrews 2:1).
How can we properly maintain our spiritual buildings? We must pay careful attention to praying and reading God's Word. We must be tuned to receive the Spirit's instruction and quick to obey when it comes. We should seek fellowship with like-minded believers, for unity is essential to our strength.
The enemy of our souls wants us to be careless about our spiritual maintenance. The words of our focus verse indicate that he is seeking to destroy us. Let us be vigilant and consistent with our maintenance so our spiritual buildings will withstand every attempt of the devil to weaken them!
Daily Smile:
Two gas company servicemen, a senior training supervisor and a young trainee, were out checking meters in a suburban neighborhood. They parked their truck the end of the alley and worked their way to the other end. At the last house, a woman looking out her kitchen window watched the two men as they checked her gas meter.Finishing the meter check, the senior supervisor challenged his younger coworker to a foot race down the alley back to the truck to prove that an older guy could outrun a younger one.
As they came running up to the truck, they realized the lady from that last house was huffing and puffing right behind them. They stopped and asked her what was wrong.
Gasping for breath, she replied, "When I see two men from the gas company running as hard as you two were, I figured I'd better run too!"
No comments:
Post a Comment