Pay attention to yourselves!
Luke 17:3”Pay attention to yourselves!....”
Many times we are worried about other things that we miss out on the most predominant factor and that is ‘paying attention to ourselves! To be careful and to be on guard are other translations. God spoke to me through this portion of the scripture in a mighty way and I would like to share my feelings with you; through my learning I’m sure God would correct and straighten out many of you through this devotion. My flesh rebels against writing this devotion; yet my spirit is willing to share my weakness. The Bible says” For when I am weak, then I am strong.(2 Corinthians 12:10)
Out of the blue cropped up a problem that snowballed into a big issue! I had prayed in the wee hours of that day, read the Word and I was spiritually equipped on all four sides to confront the enemy; yet I goofed up badly! The issue was a very sensitive one and it had to be sorted out with higher officials because of their mistake; the reason I got worked up was because they were trying to throw the ball in our court and wash their hands off the error. While trying to put forward the matter, though genuine from our side, I became forceful and aggressive hence I lost grace. THE WORLD EXPECTS MORE FROM PEOPLE WHO SPEND MORE TIME WITH GOD! Are you listening? That includes your own family; no fun in running to thousand prayer meetings if there are no fruits in our life. I lost sleep, I lost my peace, I lost my appetite, I felt totally lost myself because I had stepped out of my anointing and grace. The Lord was silent! This was more painful! After work at our Abide School, I stayed back to pray and read the Bible, bang came the crystal clear answer from God: ‘Pay attention to yourself!” I repented immediately. I did not stop there, here I am sharing this to strengthen you as well! The Lord told Moses to speak to the rock, but Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank but God was upset! Miriam had died and the people had come against Moses and Aaron; these personal afflictions had affected his ministry; nevertheless, God was upset with Moses. No matter what, God expects us to be circumspect! We got to be on guard with our emotions, words and deeds because we represent HIM on earth!
Salvation should not stop with just getting into the baptism tank and then forgetting about God; we got to examine ourselves on a regular basis. I like what Florence Nightingale, the woman who brought fresh flavor to the nursing profession did, the date she got saved she remembered every month and set aside that particular date for fasting, praying and self-examination. This is awesome! Can we also not gather dust, dirt for too long and get our souls rusty and nasty but do a self-examination regularly and set right our life?
If king David had paid attention, he would not have fallen into the heinous sin of adultery with Bethsheba. Are you listening? If you had slipped and given in to the snares of the devil, repent today and snuggle back into His Arms. The Bible says: Luke 21:34”But give attention to yourselves, for fear that your hearts become over-full of the pleasures of food and wine, and the cares of this life, and that day may come on you suddenly, and take you as in a net..”
