WHAT HAVE YOU NEGLECTED?

I Chron. 13:3  “It is time to bring back the Ark of our God, for we neglected it during the reign of Saul.”

Saul was a man who started out well.  He was humble and considered himself unqualified to serve as king over Israel.  However, he was weak in character and could not handle the position or the fame it brought him.  He became a proud and arrogant man.  He failed to listen to godly advice and took it upon himself to do whatever he wanted to do, whether it was right before God or not.  He also was plagued by jealousy and was prone to express it in fits of anger.  Saul failed to lead his people into a fellowship with God because he was out of fellowship with God.  There was a draught in the spiritual life of the nation during his reign because there was an obvious neglect on Saul’s part to keep his heart right with God.

The thing I wonder about is, “What have we neglected?”  It is easy to get so involved in life that we begin to neglect the things of God.  It can start so subtly and even unknowingly.  We fail to maintain the disciplines we need to stay close to God and before you know it, we progress into total neglect of those disciplines.  We must realize that we need to keep on doing those things we need to do in order to keep our relationship with God fresh.

It may begin with not taking time for our personal devotions because of the busyness of our lives.  We start off small, missing a day here and there, and then gradually finding excuses to miss more days until we begin to get the idea that it’s not necessary at all.  We begin to miss a few church services because we are too tired or busy.  Gradually we just go occasionally, as our schedules allow it.  Before you know it, it is more normal for us to stay away from church than it is to go.  Faith becomes more of a head thing than a heart thing for us. 

We dare not let up on those things which feed our souls.  We are prone to wander from a disciplined life, so we have to work hard to stay on track.  “What makes us think that we can escape if we are indifferent to this great salvation that was announced by the Lord Jesus himself?” (Heb. 2:3 NLT)  Indeed, we shall not escape.  We shall not escape a life without God nor the consequences of lives filled with sin. 

Neglecting our salvation is a grave sin we dare not let creep into our lives.