What is causing your Christian life to bog down?
“And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (ESV) 1 John 2:17
I recently read an article about a Formula One Grand Prix driver from Brazil. It was in Singapore in the month of September 2008. This driver's name was Felipe Massa. He should have won that particular race as he was leading. Since he had a good lead over the other drivers he decided this would be a good time to make a fuel stop. As he drove off from the refueling pit the crew noticed that the fuel hose was still attached to the car’s fuel tank. By the time the hose was finally removed, Felipe had lost too much time. He finished the race number thirteenth. What a lost!
The great Apostle Paul gave a warning to the young preacher named Timothy. Paul wasn’t warning about a fuel hose. He was warning of another kind of attachment that will slow the Christian down from his race. II Tim. 2:4, we read, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life.” He was urging Timothy not to let anything slow him down or distract him from the cause of Jesus Christ. To do so would cause him to lose the battle … spiritual battle!
There are many attractive things that the devil places in the world to distract and lure us away. Now we live in the age of technology where our time is consumed. A great part of our time is lost through such gadgetry. Too much of even a good thing could cause an unrecoverable distraction. Our souls need nourishment just as does our physical bodies. To neglect it is to commit spiritual suicide, make no mistake about this! Paul told Timothy why he ought to keep his eyes on the prize of his calling and election. We don’t want to entangle ourselves in the lures of the devil. We cannot allow worldly things to keep us out of the race. The rewards are much too great. “The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (I John 2:17). John knew that we cannot hold allegiance to both the world and to the Lord. We must do as Joshua of old did in making his decision to follow the Lord. (Josh. 24:15-28).
It is our sincere prayer that you make the right choices in life because the wrong ones will bring dire consequences!