You are your brother's keeper!

Why is it that someone who knows what God wants them to do will willingly walk away and turn from Him?  I've got this friend that has told me that he was called by God into the ministry.  He started going to school for it and began taking classes and studying for his calling.  He had the full support of his church, pastor and family, but he just stopped.  He ran from it and he actually avoided me for a couple of months.  Recently, I asked him what happened and he opened up to me again.  He told me that as soon as he started following God's will for his life that he came under more attack from the devil than he has ever faced before.  He said that it was just "too much" and he ran from God out of fear of losing his friends and having to 'give up' so much for the ministry.  It would be easy to just draw a conclusion here and say that he was just weak, or he didn't really surrender to God, or that his faith was not strong enough....etc...

But I think the real reason he failed was that his church failed him.  No one was checking up on him on a regular basis.  His fire was choked out by all the weeds around him. 

How many of us know someone who is a brand new Christian, or just young in the faith?  Are you reaching out to that person on a regular basis to help them grow in the Lord?  Are you taking every opportunity to encourage them and remind them that tough times come, and to just hold on to Jesus?

If we are not reaching out to those people, and to each other on a regular basis, then we are failing each other.  We are all in this together, and we need to remember our shared goal and our shared Heavenly Father.  It is so easy to get so wrapped up in our own lives that we 'forget' to check in on our spiritual siblings.  I'm guilty of this myself.  How many times have I sat beside someone in church and never asked them if they need prayer for anything or sometimes just: "How are you?"  The older I get, the more I think that one of the devil's favorite tools is getting us busy.  If we're too busy, then we won't have time to pray, read our bible, or spend time with our loved ones.  Keep in mind that we are in constant spiritual warfare, and just because you're having a good day and walking strong in the Lord, doesn't mean that the guy or gal sitting next to you is doing as well as you. 

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6:12 KJV)