By Rev. JAMES SCARBOROUGH
Donalsonville Assembly of God
I had already mowed my lawn several times this year before taking the time to service my mower. I could have skipped that inconvenient and rather time consuming detail, but I knew that would not be a good idea. Rain was on the way the day I had some time to work on the yard and I was aware that if I chose to service my equipment before mowing the grass there was a real possibility that I would get rained out. Nevertheless, I chose to do what I knew to be the better of the two choices.
The rain arrived before I could cut the grass that day, but I did get the mower maintenance done. The next day the grass was dry, allowing me to get the lawn work done. The time and delay that were required to get the mower serviced was not wasted time when I realized what a difference a new blade and fresh lubrication made in the performance of the mower.
Before I took time to service my lawn mower, it was still operating. But when I inspected the old blade, I found it to be badly worn, and it would have been only a matter of time before a major failure took place. In like manner, the time that we take for personal spiritual inspection and maintenance is a positive investment of immeasurable value that can protect us from major spiritual failures in life.
It is too easy for us to bypass the critical practice of personal spiritual maintenance — in areas such as spending time with God in prayer and in meditation upon His Word — because we allow the urge to do other things to take priority over what is of greater importance. We might think we are getting by as we neglect the opportunity to have our inner person replenished by God, but that is a dangerous deception and a costly route to take. Wayne Cordeiro, in his book Leading on Empty, gives an interesting assessment of the result of failing to take time for proper personal spiritual maintenance: “Sometimes we get so busy rowing the boat, we don’t take the time to stop and see where we’re going . . . or what we are becoming.”
The neglect of taking time with God for spiritual replenishment must surely be one of Satan’s primary tools to disable God’s people and hinder them from functioning at the level that He desires. How do we counter this obstacle? We counter it by following Christ’s example.
The Bible reveals in Luke 5:16 that even when there were many seeking after Christ’s ministry in their lives, He regularly took time alone with the Heavenly Father: “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (New International Version).
That which worked for Him way back then will certainly work in our lives today. Indeed, personal spiritual maintenance is a requirement that we must make time for if we expect to reach greater potential in Christian living and service.By Rev. JAMES SCARBOROUGH
Donalsonville Assembly of God
I had already mowed my lawn several times this year before taking the time to service my mower. I could have skipped that inconvenient and rather time consuming detail, but I knew that would not be a good idea. Rain was on the way the day I had some time to work on the yard and I was aware that if I chose to service my equipment before mowing the grass there was a real possibility that I would get rained out. Nevertheless, I chose to do what I knew to be the better of the two choices.
The rain arrived before I could cut the grass that day, but I did get the mower maintenance done. The next day the grass was dry, allowing me to get the lawn work done. The time and delay that were required to get the mower serviced was not wasted time when I realized what a difference a new blade and fresh lubrication made in the performance of the mower.
Before I took time to service my lawn mower, it was still operating. But when I inspected the old blade, I found it to be badly worn, and it would have been only a matter of time before a major failure took place. In like manner, the time that we take for personal spiritual inspection and maintenance is a positive investment of immeasurable value that can protect us from major spiritual failures in life.
It is too easy for us to bypass the critical practice of personal spiritual maintenance — in areas such as spending time with God in prayer and in meditation upon His Word — because we allow the urge to do other things to take priority over what is of greater importance. We might think we are getting by as we neglect the opportunity to have our inner person replenished by God, but that is a dangerous deception and a costly route to take. Wayne Cordeiro, in his book Leading on Empty, gives an interesting assessment of the result of failing to take time for proper personal spiritual maintenance: “Sometimes we get so busy rowing the boat, we don’t take the time to stop and see where we’re going . . . or what we are becoming.”
The neglect of taking time with God for spiritual replenishment must surely be one of Satan’s primary tools to disable God’s people and hinder them from functioning at the level that He desires. How do we counter this obstacle? We counter it by following Christ’s example.
The Bible reveals in Luke 5:16 that even when there were many seeking after Christ’s ministry in their lives, He regularly took time alone with the Heavenly Father: “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (New International Version).
That which worked for Him way back then will certainly work in our lives today. Indeed, personal spiritual maintenance is a requirement that we must make time for if we expect to reach greater potential in Christian living and service.