Standing on the Promises or Sitting on the Premises?
When I was five, my dad preached for a small mission congregation in Louisiana. For some reason, I thought it would make me look older to sit on the front pew, so I pestered Mom until she gave in. The first time I sat down front I felt so important!
I was usually a little sleepy when we went to church, so when Dad started preaching, I figured it was a good time to take a nap. I didn’t want anyone to know what I was doing, though, so to pull off the deception, I would lean over so slowly that no one could see me moving. In my five-year-old mind I reasoned that if no one could detect movement, no one would realize what I was doing. Can you imagine how ridiculous I must have looked when I was 45 degrees into my slow-motion lean?
Despite the bizarre nature of my actions, I pretty much had this church thing figured out. I learned early on that it was a good place to get some rest. The pew was comfortable and the preacher’s voice was soothing to me. I was so good at it that even in my sleep I could sense when Dad was getting close to the end of his sermon and I would wake up just in time to sit back up and be ready to stand for the invitation song. (I think I was some kind of “sermon savant”!)
Are we like that today? Do we come together on Sundays just to have a good rest and then go home and forget about God for the rest of the week? As a body, are we asleep?
What about you? If the preacher asks you to close your eyes during part of his sermon, are you already a step ahead of him?
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
Are you “standing on the promises” or just sitting on the premises? Remember, you “are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Ephesians 2:10). Let’s get busy!