DON’T BE CARELESS for Saturday May 23rd 2015

TOPIC: DON’T BE CARELESS

Memorise: Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Matthew 24:42

Read: Matthew 24:37-44, Bible in one year: 2^nd Samuel 12:24-13:39, Mark 13:3-23

While some commandments of God are very glaring, some others appear in covert mode, such that many don’t even see them as commandments. One of such subtle commandments is the commandment to “watch” (Matthew 24:42). This commandment can also be expressed this way: don’t be careless. It is unfortunate that many children of God today are careless about their Christian life, and by so doing, they have shipwrecked their faith. They live their lives as if they have nothing to lose to the enemy. Such Christians needs be reminded that they have at least one crown to protect – the

crown of righteousness (2^nd Timothy 4:8). The Lord in Revelation 3:11 says this to us:

“Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ expressly commanded us to watch. Have you pondered on why He gave us this command? It is because He knew He would not be coming back as quickly as we would expect, and that there would therefore be the tendency for us to become careless with respect to our readiness for His return. We are all living witnesses of the spiritual decadence that is enveloping the Church today. The Lord used the experience of Noah’s period ton warn us that His coming will be sudden. He said it will be business as usual for most people at this time, and they will have no inkling whatsoever of what is about to happen (Matthew 24:37-39). When I see Christian brothers and sisters being careless about holiness, I begin to wonder whether they still believe the words of the scriptures, particularly those that came directly from the mouth of our Lord Himself. Different scriptures are being fulfilled in our time more than ever before, and so many seem not to bother! In the early days of spiritual awakening, some Christians would not even want to marry in order to avoid the cares of this life. But these days, even some pastors are changing two, three or four women in rapid succession. It used to be that Christians dressed for the purpose of covering their nakedness, but today, we dress for “fashion”. Some Christian women even compete with call girls in their mode of dressing. This scenario playing itself out may be as a result of the “delay” in the return of our Lord. Yet, the scripture has already warned us against this in Matthew 24:43-44:

“But know this, that if the Goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

Prayer Point:

Dear Holy Spirit, as promised by the Lord Jesus, always being to my remembrance the need to watch and not be careless in the area of my readiness for the Lord’s return.