Diligent Heed
Joshua 22:5
"But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."
Success in the Christian life is not achieved by accident. If you are going to be successful as a Christian until the day you die, then you are going to have to purposely serve the LORD. God cautioned the children of Israel to take "diligent heed" in their lives. This is interesting because God did not say to simply take heed, but God expressed extra diligence in what they should do. God wanted you to take painstaking measures to be sure that you do four things in your Christian life.
First, take diligent heed to do God's commandments. You are not going to keep God's commandments by accident. One of the reasons God told Israel to write the commandments down and place them around their homes was because He wanted them to be constantly reminded to do them. One of the reasons you should read the Scriptures daily is so that you will be reminded to do God's commandments. One of the reasons you should be faithful to all the church services is so that you can be reminded to do God's commandments. If you don't watch it, you will get so busy doing everything else and your attention will be drawn off God's commandments which will cause you to soon stop doing them. If you are going to be successful in doing God's commandments, then you would be wise to place His commandments in several places so you will be reminded to do them.
Second, take diligent heed to love the LORD. This may seem strange, but because you must serve the LORD "in spirit and in truth," then you must be careful that your love for God does not wane. As humans, we are prone to love that which we see and touch. Therefore, you must be careful that you don't let anything steal your love for God. Just like a married person must be careful that they don't let another person steal their love from their spouse; likewise, you must be careful not to let people or possessions steal your love for God. You must be diligent about guarding that love.
Third, take diligent heed to walk in God's ways. There are many methods on how you can do things, but the only method you should follow is God's method. You will find in the Christian life that men come up with many ways to do things, but you must always be sure that man's ways don't disagree with God's ways. Don't follow man's ways of rearing your children, but follow God's ways of rearing your children. Don't follow man's ways to achieve position, but follow God's way of serving others. Don't follow your ways of how situations should be handled, but follow God's way of handling situations, which can be found in the Word of God.
Fourth, take diligent heed to serve God. This is interesting because you would think that this would be easy, but it's not. God warned Israel about being diligent to serve Him because He knew that man could quickly start serving man. If you are not careful, you will start serving your preacher instead of God. Though your preacher may not ask you to do wrong, you are not to serve Him. You are to serve God! NEVER let your eyes be placed on man; instead, always keep your eyes on God. Let God be the One Whom you purposely serve. Don't ever be guilty of serving man instead of God.
These four areas will never be achieved unless you are diligent about doing them. Set up guards in your life so that these four things don't slip away. Purposely choose daily to do these things. Don't get so busy in what you do for God that you allow these areas to slip. You may have right intentions, but these areas will slip if you are not diligent about heeding them.