Diligence

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; - Deuteronomy 4.9

Faith is not something we can take casually. It is not something that just kind of is there for us to grab when we need it. There is a real danger of drifting away in our walk with God if we are not careful.

God knew that so He warned the Israelites. ‘Take heed to yourself. Keep your soul diligently. If you don’t do so you will forget what God had done and depart from following Him. So teach your children and your grandchildren.’

I have found myself on the verge of slipping away before. When I neglect the basics like prayer and Bible study and my devotional life and going to church and things like that I can find my attitudes and thoughts and actions becoming more and more like the world.

So I must be always on my guard, always paying attention to my actions and attitudes, always ‘keeping my heart with all diligence. I know my heart and soul require keeping. I know how close I am to slipping up. When I get focused on me I can too easily forget what God has done.

So I like what the last bit says because it tells us the best way to keep our focus. The best way to pay attention and be diligent is to teach others. ‘Don’t forget,’ God says, ‘instead teach all that God has done to your children and your grandchildren.’ If we are teaching it is impossible to be forgetting.

Our walk with God deserves our attention more than anything else in our lives. It is our legacy to pass it on to the next generations – for their sake and for ours.