Vigilance !

Monday January 24, 2022

Vigilance !

“Pay close attention to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts grow insensitive amid surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly.” Luke 21. 34

A former drug addict testifies to the ease with which we can fall back into what we have rejected. “I thought I would be cured after four years without taking anything resembling a drug, but one day I was struck with a huge urge to taste this poison again. While I was in a church, I no longer listened to the songs, the prayers, the message ; I only heard the tempter. He was erasing the risks and minimizing the consequences ; I was more and more vulnerable. Was it the devil or the old man's soliloquy in me ? I don't know, but as soon as I left the church, I went to a place where I knew how to quickly find what I was looking for. And I dived back knowingly. The drama is to think that we are definitively cured of our weaknesses to the point that our ear no longer listens to the warnings ; we then forget the imperative vigilance even when one is a Christian.” This is no doubt why James declares : “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you !" (4.7). The problem is that if we don't make a firm decision to change course, we always find the side roads that lead to loss. The apostle Paul was often surprised in his letters to see that those who had turned to Christ during his ministry as evangelist and missionary easily returned to their old nature, allowing themselves to be seduced by false talk, questioning the decisions made. So, even after a strong and undeniable experience of conversion, it is possible to deviate from the straight path. To the Corinthians, but also to the Christians of all the churches, the apostle gives this advice to be taken as an instruction : “Let him who thinks he is standing be careful not to fall !” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

Source (His Word for Today)