I can’t help myself. I care about the souls of other people. And when people have sinned against God and against me I yearn to see repentance and restoration. When people who have named Jesus as Boss leave their first love it scares me. What if, as some Bible references imply, God gives up on those who refuse to repent?

English: Jesus Christ saving the souls of the ...

English: Jesus Christ saving the souls of the damned. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And so I go over in my mind what I could say or do to call them back to submission under the authority of Almighty God.

Only two days ago God gave my head a shake, however. Such mind exercising doesn’t heal the situation. If ever I get a chance to bring God’s word to these people I likely won’t remember what little speech I had considered to give.

That said, it means I have to stop putting time into such thoughts. They waste time, energy and my spirit. My prayers for their souls will continue. Speech preparation ends.

You see, it was their sin which occupied my thoughts. And God tolerated my error only for a time. Sin doesn’t deserve any play time in the theatre of my mind. What I felt showed concern came closer to what Pilgrim encountered, the Slough of Despond. For all my thoughts and concern nothing happened, nor could happen. Stuck at imagined help other matters fell to a lower priority.

So God calls us to task. What is the highest priority for the servant of Jesus Christ? “I consider everything else worthless because I’m much better off knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. It’s because of him that I think of everything as worthless. I threw it all away in order to gain Christ and to have a relationship with him” (Philippians 3:8b-9a God’s Word).