Tips For Devotions

Check out a great post by Jeff Leake with some good practical tips for devotions.

Coming Out As Gold

Apologies for my recent lack of blogging regularity. Life's been pretty intense for us recently, but I hope to get back into a swing of sorts.

In my Scripture reading today I came across Job 23:10. The power of this verse is seen in light of its context. Job was a man who experienced extreme physical and emotional adversity in his life. His possessions were taken and his children were all killed. After that he experienced intense physical afflictions as he was covered with sores from head to foot.

In the midst of this unexplained and perplexing situation he writes of God in 23:10

"But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold."

Job didn't allow the pressure and tragedy of his situation to make him bitter against God. In the midst of it, he found a way to humble himself before God and trust that whatever God's purpose, he would come through it as gold on the other side.

When we face difficulty in life we should ask ourselves what God is teaching us through it. He is shaping our character through the various trials that we face. Truly he works all things for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

Devotional Literature

One thing that has really helped me in my spiritual formation has been the reading of devotional books. I've recently decided to become more intentional about reading devotional classics.

One thing about devotional classics is that they must be read with both an open heart and caution. An open heart because it is good for us to fill our minds with writings that direct our thoughts to God. Caution because not everything that any particular writer says is always 100% biblical all the time. It basically comes down to eating up the good and throwing out the weird.

That being said, I feel like reading devotional books along with daily Bible reading can be a tremendous benefit for our spiritual growth. I'm currently reading through The Imitation Of Christ by the 16th century monk Thomas a Kempis. It's split up into nice little 1-2 page chapters that makes for good succinct daily reading. A couple other devotional books I'd recommend are:

The Way Of The Heart- Henri Nouwen
The Pursuit Of God- A.W. Tozer
In The Name Of Jesus- Henri Nouwen
The Divine Conspiracy- Dallas Willard
Celebration Of Discipline- Richard Foster
Power Through Prayer- E.M. Bounds
Secrets Of The Secret Place- Bob Sorge
The Practice Of The Presence Of God- Brother Lawrence
My Utmost For His Highest- Oswald Chambers
A Hunger For God- John Piper

I'll stop there for the sake of time. I've deliberately kept this list to the kinds of books that are easier to read. There are many, many other good devotional books out there. Are there any others that you have found helpful in your life? Feel free to share your thoughts in a comment.

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Faith Or Fear

At our young adult group last night, one of the main ideas was the subject of choices. The choices we make in defining moments have the power to change the direction of our lives. Our lives really are the sum total of the different choices we've made.

Obviously some choices are more critical than others. Who we marry, where we live, where we work, where we serve in ministry, are all way more important than which pair of shoes we decide to wear in the morning. It's in these important moments where our choices matter the most.

Perhaps the most important decisions we make are related to how we respond to God's calling on our lives. Just as clarification, I believe God has a calling and a purpose for every one of us, not just pastors and missionaries. Not everyone's calling looks the same, but everyone has a unique purpose from God. Not everyone is called in the same way. Sometimes God speaks to people in dramatic ways and sometimes he calls people to things more subtly.

So, when it comes to God's call on our lives, what will we choose to do? For some of us, the calling God has for us is something that looks impossible. It may seem unattainable or even foolish. The main question is, are we going to base our choices on fear or faith?

In Numbers 13, Moses sends men into the promised land of Canaan to spy out the land. This was land that God had already promised to the people of Israel. All the spies came back afraid of the people of the land except for Caleb and Joshua. In 14:8-9 they said to the people

"8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

They didn't allow the opposition to diminish their confidence in God's ability to lead them into his plan. Neither should we. When it comes to God's calling, will we choose fear or faith?

Isaiah 40:28-31

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

Discipline Drudgery

Discipline without direction equals drudgery.

That was one of the main statements in my message on Sunday. It's so true that without vision or direction, disciplines become drudgery.

When I was a kid, my mom tried to get me to learn to play the piano. I remember lessons with my teacher who had really long fingernails that clicked on the keys as she played. The fact was however that I hated those lessons and I hated practicing most of all. For the life of me I couldn't see the benefit in the hard work of practicing the piano. I remember literally laying on the floor under the piano bench refusing to practice. This was because I had no vision.

All of that changed however when I turned 12 years old and started taking guitar lessons. This time I had a vision, direction, and purpose. I wanted to be a rockstar! Therefore I devoted myself to painstaking practice on chords and strumming and such in order to achieve my dream. While that dream never actually became a reality (thank God!) I am grateful for how God has been able to use that skill in my life.

The point is that without a vision disciplines become boring and meaningless. The same can be true of our spiritual lives. If we don't have a vision for what our lives could become, we will not see the purpose in disciplines such as Bible reading, prayer, worship, fellowship and things like that. They will become empty boring routines.

I believe that God wants to give us a vision for Christlikeness. As Christians we are called to be "little Christs". The purpose of spiritual growth is to become more and more like Jesus.

We always imitate what we admire most. You can always tell who or what a person admires most by what they imitate. The more we become fascinated by Jesus, the more we will want to be like him.

When that happens, we will see the spiritual disciplines as a joy and not a nuisance. We will come to see them as a means of transforming us into the image of Christ and not just meaningless rituals.

Just some of my reflections.

George Muller On Overcoming ADD in Prayer

I know I'm probably the only one who's ever had to deal with this, but have you ever struggled with ADD in prayer? You know, trying to be focused in prayer but instead end up experiencing all kinds of distractions. Like when you sit down to pray and then remember that your car needs an oil change, your refrigerator is empty, the room you're in could really use a good cleaning, and wow! your already 10 minutes late for work!

So what do you do? How do you deal with it?

George Muller wrote something really insightful regarding this in his autobiography. He said:

"The primary business I must attend to every day is fellowship with the Lord. The first concern is not how much I might serve the Lord, but how my inner man might be nourished...The most important thing I had to do was to read the Word of God and meditate on it...Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible. But I often spent a quarter of an hour to an hour on my knees struggling to pray while my mind wandered. Now I rarely have this problem. As my heart is nourished by the truth of the Word, I am brought into true fellowship with God... This exercise of the soul can be best performed after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God."

Muller basically proposes that meditation on the Scriptures is a powerful means of staying focused in prayer. As our minds are occupied with the truth of God's Word our souls will stay nourished and focused in prayer.

Mature Love For God

Right now I'm reading through Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. One interesting concept that I've been reading about is his take on loving God. He deals with the dilemma we all face about basing our love for God or our spouse or others on our feelings. Regarding love for God he says,

"They [people] are told they ought to love God. They cannot find any such feeling in themselves. What are they to do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask yourself, 'If I were sure I loved God, what would I do?' When you have found the answer, go and do it... Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will... He will give us feelings of love if he pleases. We cannot create them ourselves, and we must not demand them as a right."

Sometimes I think we (myself included) are inclined to love God or worship God or pray to God only when we have strong feelings of love toward him. If that is the only time we pursue God (i.e. when we feel like it) it proves that our love is fickle and immature.

I thank God for the times when I feel intense love for him and my heart is awakened by revelation. At the same time though my love for God cannot be dependent on my feelings. Lewis alludes to the fact that feelings come and go and cannot be manufactured. They are also not principally what God cares about.

In the same way that a husband and wife's love matures and is strengthened through time and testing, so our love for God is refined and purified through spiritual drought seasons. That is, when we feel no love for God, the resolve of our will to love him anyway strengthens and matures our love for him. In the same way that a marriage cannot be built on a feeling, so our relationship with God cannot be built on our feelings.

As a side note, though our love for God is immature it does not mean that God does not regard it as real and genuine. This side of eternity we will all be growing in our love for God and none of us will ever perfectly arrive. His love for us never changes and is not dependent on our performance.

So how can we mature in our love for God?

I can think of at least three things, there are probably more, but basically:

1. We must realize that love is not a feeling, but rather a resolve of the will.
2. We must realize that feelings of love will come and go.
3. When the feelings are gone (and this will happen) we must resolve to love God for who he is and what he has done not because of what he can do for us or how we feel.

In this way, as our love for God is tested through seasons of suffering or drought, our love for God becomes more and more mature. The cool thing about God's grace is that when we choose to love him regardless of how we feel, he tends to bless us with feelings of love more often. The old principle is true: Faith does not follow feelings, feelings follow faith.

Any thoughts on this?

Maximizing Our Joy In God

Had this thought the other day:

True joy does not come from filling ourselves with what we think we want, but rather from God filling us with what he knows we need.

I find that I am happiest when I'm not looking out for #1. That is, I tend to be most fulfilled in life when I'm not focused on pleasing myself, but rather serving and giving to others. In essence, when I am not focused on bringing personal happiness to myself, I am free to experience the joy of blessing others.

God knows what will satisfy and fulfill us infinitely better than we could ever know ourselves. So, when we choose to live for him and according to his purposes for our lives, we find that we are the most fulfilled. That's why God says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." When God is the supreme delight and joy of our lives, we will live in such a way as to bring him maximum glory and praise through our lives.

It is as we live in this way that we are satisfied with him above all things. We find ourselves living for something far bigger than ourselves. We are free from obsessing about our own little world and how we can maximize our own pleasure.

We are free to give our lives to a cause that greater than any other in the universe: Making disciples of all nations and leading people into their own personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Only when Jesus becomes the supreme joy of our lives will leading people to him become our source of greatest joy. Until we love him more than anything, we will only focus on how to please ourselves. When we love him with all of our hearts, nothing will give us greater joy than glorifying him than giving our lives to his mission in the earth.

The pleasure we gain from glorifying God is infinitely greater than merely living to make much of our own personal ends. It is a terrible deception to think that ultimate joy comes from seeking to please ourselves.

Wisdom of the Aged

I was reading in my bible this morning from 1 Kings 12. This comes right after Solomon's heart turns from the Lord to the foreign gods of his many (700!) wives. Chapter 12 v.1-11 is all about his son Rehoboam's stupidity.

After Solomon dies, the people of Israel talk with Rehoboam and ask him to not be as harsh as on them as his father was. So it says in v.6 "Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, 'How do you advise me to answer this people?' And they said to him, 'If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever'."

Sounds pretty good to me. Rehoboam however didn't seem to think so. v.8 says, "But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him"

Long story short, his friends tell him to be more harsh on the people than Solomon was. Instead of listening to the counsel of those who were older and wiser than he was, he opted for the advice of the kids he grew up with. At that point, the kingdom divided and all but the tribe of Judah turned against him. They even stoned the guy who Rehoboam sent to implement the forced labor (v.18).

Moral of the story?

We should never disregard the counsel of those who are older and wiser than us. Proverbs 13:20 says, "Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm."

They might not always be right, but more often than not they will be. I forget who said, Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. The trusted men and women of God who are older and wiser than us have a lot more history under their belt than we do. We would do well to welcome their counsel.

Experiential Faith

The anticipation is continuing to build as the countdown to our Spiritual Awakening Services is down to two days. As I mentioned in a previous post, all of my life-defining moments have come from times where I was immersed in the presence of God. This weekend I'm praying and believing for life-defining moments in people's lives. I'm praying that God would change lives forever.

Our faith is intended by God to be experiential. Think about it, the Scriptures are full of men and women who had real experiences with the living God. It's impossible to read the Bible and come away denying the fact that God wants us to experience his presence.

It's in God's presence that we're reminded of how great he is and how small we are. It's in that place of intimacy with him that we experience "fullness of joy" and are changed forever.

I'm reminded of what A.W. Tozer says in The Pursuit of God,

For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.

I'm praying that this weekend God will reveal himself in powerful ways. That everyone who comes in will experience the life-transforming power of his love and grace and never be the same again!

Preach To Yourself

Recently I've been reminded about an important principle. We need to preach truth to ourselves. There are times when life has a way of stealing our joy, getting us down, and moving us off target. Sometimes we feel condemnation for a certain failure or discouragement from adverse circumstances. In times like these we must rise up and whip ourselves into shape.

Part of growing in spiritual maturity is taking ownership of our relationship with God. It is important that we take personal responsibility for our spiritual growth. There will be times when it won't be easy, when we don't feel spiritual, when we are empty. In these times, we need to rise up and preach truth to ourselves and bring our wandering hearts and minds back into alignment with God's Word.

In the military there are drill sergeants. If you're slacking as a soldier, you can be sure your drill sergeant will let you know about it! Unfortunately in the Christian life we don't always have someone there to push us forward. Therefore we must be the ones who push ourselves forward. Consider what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified."

It is so easy to live aimlessly these days. There's not only the danger of discouragement but the temptation to medicate our discouragement by overdosing on entertainment. There's nothing wrong with entertainment in itself, but when it becomes the thing we turn to in times of trouble we have begun to live aimlessly. Paul's words speak to us because they say that in order to live a life of significance, we must discipline ourselves.

Here's what King David did in 1 Samuel 30:6 when he faced overwhelming discouragement. "And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."

So how do you preach to yourself?

Well, whenever you find yourself depressed, discouraged, broken, hurt, and lonely, bring your mind and heart into alignment with Scripture. Find verses that combat the particular struggle you are facing. For instance, if you are feeling condemnation preach to yourself the truth of Romans 8:1-2: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death."

Simply preach that truth to yourself over and over. I personally find it helpful to pace around the room as I do this. Chances are you won't feel like you are free from the law of sin and death, but if you are a Christian you are free at the core of your being and you just need to bring your mind and heart into alignment with that truth. This process can be applied to every circumstance, dilemma, trial, tragedy, and attack we might face.

Hope this helps. Happy preaching :)

Thought Provoking

As I was reading this morning I came across a quote from English spiritual writer Anthony Bloom. Regarding prayer he said,

"We complain that God does not make himself present to us for the few minutes we reserve for him, but what about the twenty-three and a half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer, 'I am busy. I am sorry.' Or when we do not answer at all because we do not even hear the knock at the door of our heart, of our mind, of our conscience, of our life. So their is a situation in which we have no right to complain of the absence of God, because we are a great deal more absent than he ever is."

It really made me stop and think about how much God desires communion with us. God desires to commune with us through every part of the day, not just the times we traditionally set aside for prayer. He wants to give us an awareness of his presence even in the mundane and ordinary experiences of life.

Spiritual Intensity

As I was reading through Romans 12:9-21 I got stuck on a pretty cool insight. It says in verse 11, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." I don't know about you, but I think sometimes we tend to view spiritual intensity as something that just kind of comes on us during revival moments or special services. Kind of like something that just happens in seasons and comes upon us unexpectedly. I'm not discrediting revivals and special seasons of God's blessing, but I think Paul is getting at something that transcends meetings and events. He's talking about a day to day lifestyle of spiritual passion.

What Paul is teaching here is that spiritual intensity can be cultivated and sustained. He even dares to say "never be lacking in zeal." Not only can it be nurtured and kept alive, it must. It's sort of like logs on a fire. If we refuse to continually put fresh wood and fuel on it it will eventually die. A spiritual fire is maintained the same way.

When it comes to sustaining a passion for God, intimacy sustains intensity. If we aren't spending time experiencing God in a fresh way daily, our spiritual fire will burn out. I'm not talking about doing "chore" devotions out of a sense of obligation. I'm talking about really encountering the living God through his word. In other words, we need to be cultivating a daily, interactive relationship with God.

I really believe our souls were created for fellowship with God. That place of intimacy with him is the only place we will ever truly be fulfilled. Experiencing God's unconditional, limitless love for us awakens and fans the flame of love and passion in our hearts back to God. So, Paul's exhortation to "never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord" is really an invitation to experience life to the fullest, the life we were created to live.

Weekend Reflections

Saturday morning we had the privilege of joining the committee to clean and beautify Ambridge for their Spring kick-off. A group of about 12 of us from ACC hit the streets with probably about 40 other people for a couple hours of spring cleaning! I can't think of a more appropriate way of demonstrating love for a community than helping to clean it up.

In service on Sunday I really felt an exceptional spirit of joy and enthusiasm during the worship time. The atmosphere was just charged with expectancy. I gave a message called "The Unstoppable Church" from Matthew 16:13-18. We looked at the importance of having a right belief about who God is, how Peter's confession, "You are the Christ the Son of the living God" is the true foundation of the church, and the indestructability of the church, which the gates of hell can never overcome.

The gates of hell will never prevail against the church of the living God! Gates are stationary, defensive structures. So many times, as the church, we take a retreatist mentality. We go into hibernation mode and hide from the world. There's one problem with that: The church is called to play offense! There is nothing we have to fear because we are being led by the One who has all authority in heaven and earth. It doesn't matter what sport you're playing, you won't win if you don't play offense. I think a lot of times we disguise our fear as caution. I'm not saying that there won't be times to scale back and huddle, but when it's motivated by fear it's not of God.

We concluded by illustrating this with the story of Esther. She decides, despite the risk to her life to go before the king and plead for her people. I love the resolve she displayed, "If I perish, I perish." She wasn't going to be remembered as a loser. She knew she was created for "such a time as this" and she didn't retreat in fear.

Really makes me want to go for it!

Jephthah

I'm really enjoying the current Bible reading plan I'm working through right now. I appreciate it because it helps keep me accountable to read through the Bible in a year. I haven't done it for a couple of years and I'm really getting a lot out of it. If you're like me, if you don't have a plan it won't get done :)

I was reading through Judges the other day when I came across the story of Jephthah. At a time when Israel was in bondage to the Philistines and Ammonites because they were worshipping idols and other gods, the Lord raised up Jephthah to deliver them. I like how the Bible first describes him. It says "Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute." Isn't it awesome to see that some of the people most greatly used by God came from the most unlikely situations? Jephthah didn't allow his scandalous heritage to keep him from becoming a mighty warrior in God's sight. In Judges 11:3 his family actually drove him away because he was the son of a prostitute!

I just love his reaction. "So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him." I love that!

Jephthah eventually led Israel out of Ammonite captivity. I think the Christian leaders of the future won't necessarily be the ones with the best heritage, but the ones willing to stand up and become warriors despite what the world thinks of them. Oh that God would raise up leaders and adventurers to bring freedom to people shackled in darkness!

(I think I might have to preach on this sometime :)

Finishing "Fit To Be Untied"

This weekend we will conclude our 3-part series called Fit to Be Untied after a brief break for Resurrection Day. In this series we've been examining the subject of freedom in Christ.

In the first message we looked at Isaiah 61 and saw how Jesus came to proclaim freedom to the captives and release those bound in darkness. We talked about how, apart from Christ, we are powerless to do anything about our sinful condition. We need to be delivered by someone with greater authority than the sin which holds us captive. Since all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ, then when he sets you free, you are free indeed!

In the second message we looked at how there's more to freedom than just being set free. We have to choose to live in that freedom every day. Sometimes, in our humanity, we end up having to learn things the hard way twice, or more than twice :) We don't have to ever go back to our old lives because we've been set free. We saw from Galatians 5 that we can stand firm in our freedom and resist going back into bondage. Freedom is maintained and sustained through a daily interactive relationship with Jesus.

So we've looked at getting free, staying free, and now this week we will be looking at freeing others. This chain reaction is not meant to stop with us. God wants to use us to spark the same reality in the lives of others!

Undiminishable

As I was studying today, I was encouraged by the reality that God's love is undiminishable. It can't be diminished or changed in any way. That idea is completely different from human love. Human love at one point or another will let us down. We eventually will let down those closest to us in one facet or another. I think sometimes, because of our experiences with human conditional love, we tend to automatically think that God relates to us like everyone else does.

The truth is that God loves you as much on your worst day as he does on your best day. There's nothing you can do that will ever change or diminish the way God feels about you. His love in not conditioned on our worthiness or loveability (thank God). If that were the case, none of us could ever dream of earning up to his love.

It's precisely our unworthiness that makes God's love so powerful and unique! If we got what we really deserve... ... ... (maybe we shouldn't go there!)

It's definitely not cheap grace either. It doesn't mean that God's cool with us living in sin. But, if we are true believers, even our mistakes don't change the way God feels about us. In the conviction process, his arms are open wide so that when we fall or mess up we can repent and run to him rather than from him. Even in the moments of our greatest weakness his love factor never changes. "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn. 1.9).

If we live in that reality, he will never condemn us or reject us. It's actually his love that invites us to leave our sin and live pleasing to him (Rom. 2.4). Satan would have us believe that God's love for us changes based on our performance. That way he could get us to run from God rather than to him when we mess up.

Thank God that when we are his, the death we deserve is completely obliterated by his unconditional, boundless, and undiminishable love!

How should we respond?

Fit To Be Untied

Today we concluded the second message in our sermon series called Fit To Be Untied, exploring freedom in Christ. This week's message was called "Living Free." We discussed that there's more to freedom than being set free. Sustaining freedom requires a living, daily relationship with Jesus Christ. Our main passage was Galatians 5:1.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let ourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

We talked about how God created us to be free, but we are all born slaves of sin. Since we are free in Christ we can and must choose to stand firm in that freedom. The world, the flesh, and the devil will all try to drag us back into slavery, but we can live free as we live by the Spirit through daily dependence on Christ.

God created us to be free and slaves to nothing. The free you is the true you.

Just as we were under the influence of sin, the good news is that we can live under the influence of the Holy Spirit every day.

We can walk with God every day. He calls us to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Stepping implies walking, and walking implies motion. As we are moving through life, we can stay free by walking in step with the Spirit of God.

Just like when Peter was walking on the water with Jesus, he was all right as long as he kept his eyes on Christ. When he looked away from Jesus and focused on his impossible circumstances, he started sinking. There's nothing we can't overcome as long as we are walking in the Spirit with our eyes fixed on Jesus.

We also got to hear a testimony from Kim Berger, one of our young adults who was a former drug addict who found freedom in Christ and the power to stay free. I never get tired of hearing real stories of the life-changing power of God!

Carefulness

While reading this morning I came across a very stirring theme in Deuteronomy. Through Moses, God repeatedly exhorts the Israelites to carefulness in their walk before God. In Deut. 4, as they are preparing to enter the promised land he says,

"Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live." v.9

"Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol..." v.15b-16

"Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you... For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. v.23-24

"So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you..." 5.32

We can never underestimate the importance of carefulness in our walk with God. The enemy of our souls never takes a break. He is constantly looking to take us down through temptations, discouragement, suffering, or any other way he can. The bad news is that he doesn't play fair. He'll hit you when and where you're weak like he did to king David (2 Sam. 11).

The good news is that we can resist him and gain victory every time. "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in your faith, because you know that your brothers around the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." 1 Peter 5.8-9

By being self-controlled and alert (i.e. careful) we can stand strong and remain faithful in the face of temptation and trial. So many times, because the Israelites weren't careful, they fell into worshipping other gods. Like a man driving down the road who ends up in a ditch because he was careless. Nobody wants to fall into a ditch. King David didn't want to become an adulterer and a murderer. Nobody really wants to destroy their lives and hurt the people closest to them. Carelessness is costly. How much could have been avoided by being careful?

Could some of the greatest failures in life ultimately be the result of a lack of carefulness?