Stay Straight

Read: Acts 2:41-47


And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. 
                                                                                                                            Acts 2:46


     One of the skills taught to someone learning proper canoeing techniques is how to paddle in a straight line across a lake. The way to keep from zigzagging all over the lake and wasting energy when you are trying to cross is to focus on a point on the opposite side right near where you want to land. By concentrating on a single point, it helps the paddler stay on course. The same idea has been used by farmers for generations about plowing a straight line in a field. It is vital that they focus on a point down the field because, if they don’t, everybody would easily see that they got distracted. Their lines would wind all over the field. Both a man in a canoe and a farmer plowing in a field must keep their focus straight ahead or they will never reach their goal.

     Likewise, Christians must keep their eyes on Christ or they will be distracted from their goal of following in His footsteps. The devil has devised so many ways to get Christians, especially young men, diverted from the path God has for them to walk. The world’s movies and music attract the attention of so many young people and causes them to be drawn away from following Christ. Young ladies who are less than pure are also a diversion to young men who have not set their sights wholly on Jesus Christ. When you keep your eyes on Christ, it is hard to turn the wrong way. We sin when we take our eyes off Jesus and start focusing on all of the allurements the devil lays out for us.  

     Just as the goal of a man in a canoe is to make it to a point on the other side and the goal of a farmer is to plow perfectly straight lines, so the goal of a Christian is to make it to Heaven without having turned aside from the plan that God has laid out for his life. Living in today’s world makes it harder and harder to stay focused on that plan, but with our eyes solely on Christ, we can attain the crowns that He wants to give us when we finally get to Heaven.

 Quote of the day: “Duty is ours; consequences are God’s.”  – Stonewall Jackson