Pay attention to yourself

Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. – 1 Timothy 4.13-16

Paul also tells Timothy to not neglect the spiritual gift that God has given him. In his next letter Paul will tell Timothy to ‘stir up’ the gift that is in him. That stirring is the word word to stir up the embers of a fire so that it is a roaring flam again. The phrase ‘do not neglect’ also could speak of the importance of keeping the fire going.

Fires eventually burn out. No matter how big the fire when the fuel runs out the fire goes out. I know that well. When I was in military training many, many years ago we were out for training at a rural military base in Pennsylvania. The building were stayed in were WW2 training barracks and heat and how water depended on keeping a fire going all night. The fire had to be tended and stoked and fuel added. We took turns in half hour shifts and had to march around and check on the fire. I did my short about 1.00 and was responsible to wake the next guy. I did, and was certain he was, but after I left he climbed back on his cot. So, the best morning because the fire was not attended to it went out and nobody had any hot water and there was no heat. And who was to blame – me of course, I had not made sure the next guy was awake to tend the fire. It was neglected and it went out.

That’s wha happens to our Christian service if we don’t tend to it.

We can never take our Christian life for granted. We can’t neglect it. We must keep the fire alive.