Neglect means to fail to care for or attend to something; to fail to do or carry out something due to oversight or carelessness.
I want you to picture this in your mind: You are driving through a nice neighborhood in a town, with neat, clean houses on each side of the street. Neatly trimmed lawns, flowers and yard decorations tastefully placed around each yard, crisp, clean houses with sparkling windows. House after house is like this, a very pleasant sight to behold.
All of a sudden, you notice something out of place in this neighborhood. An old, abandoned and run-down house. The paint is peeling off of the siding, the lawn looks like a jungle, dead trees and brush everywhere, maybe a stack of newspapers piling up by the front door. What happened to cause this? The failure to take care of the property caused the quality of the house and yard to deteriorate, and look unpleasant and unkept. It was “neglected.”
Many things can be neglected. If a student during class fails to pay attention or doesn’t study on their own, their grades will suffer because of that neglect.
Here is an experiment to try: take two separate pots and plant a seed into each of them. Water both of them until they germinate (sprout) and begin to grow. Then take one of the plants and set in the sun, and take the other plant and cover the whole plant and pot with a dark black storage tote, so it is completely cut off from the sun. Wait a week and you will see that the plant that you left in the sunshine looks strong and green, the plant that you covered up will be a paler green, and will not be as lush and strong as the other one. That is because it was not taken care of, and given the sunshine that it needs to grow. It was “neglected.”
Pretty much the same thing can happen to a person. Someone could hear about Christ, that seed starting to sprout in their hearts, but if that seed is not taken care of, it can become weak, and die.
That seed of faith needs to be nurtured, and fed in order for it to become strong and mature. Daily reading of God’s word and regular attendance to services are like food and water to your body, but spiritual. Your physical body needs food and water to grow and function properly, and your spirit needs spiritual care to keep it strong.
Too many people today only attend church a couple times a year or on a holiday. They might have the basic knowledge of how Jesus died for them, but if they neglect that sprouting seed of faith, it will die. If they do not continue to feed their faith, through reading the Bible or listening to it preached, it will not mature into a strong faith.
Being a Christian is a full-time responsibility. We always need to keep the Holy Spirit working in our lives, so that we continue to be strong.
“Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” 1 Timothy 4:14
Just as Paul wrote to Timothy to not neglect his gift, we all have been given a gift from God, and we need to take care of it. We have been given grace, forgiveness, mercy. We have the offer of eternal life. It is there, available to everyone, completely free.
Eternal life is not something that can be bought in a store or earned some way. And while it is a gift available to all, not everyone will receive it because not everyone will take care of their seed of faith.
Keep feeding your faith each day, and never neglect it.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 