I received this e-mail from a mentor and friend last week. It hit me pretty hard. How I long for lesson to be lived in my own life and the lives of those I love and serve!
When
the spirit of willing service goes, all the enthusiasms begin to die. Prayer is
stinted, criticism enters, churchgoing becomes very intermittent, and slowly
the whole character is changed. Years later in 2 Tim 4:10 . Paul
wrote about him. And then the years go by, the bitter dragging years, and once
again we have the name of Demas. And with a great ache in his heart, Paul has
to write, "Demas hath forsaken me." Idle, not
serving as he used to do, no longer forgetting everything in labor, Demas was
unequal to the strain. It all began when Demas ceased to serve and, ceasing to
serve, also ceased to pray. All he had given up began to claim him then. The
old life became intensely vivid. And the tragedy is that, going back to it, it
never could content his heart again after the glory that had come—and gone.
I
pray that I will never lose the fire to serve God and be responsive to Him and
strive to be qualified for any assignment and call he has for me."
"I read this morn AB Morrison talking about Demas – how he
drifted away from Paul, and because he left as a co-worker his life
spiralled and character changed. This writing reminded me of many
guys I know:
