If we have never found Christ, if we don't really know what it is to have his presence and his power in our lives, we ought to think about these things prayerfully and reflect upon them until by a work of the Spirit they come home to us as being very real, and we feel our need of the forgiveness of God. We must feel our danger as lost, condemned souls, and see in Calvary the kindness of God: that the second person of the glorious Trinity should enter into time and to suffer and die to take the punishment due to me eternally for my sin. Think about it until you are overwhelmed by the mercy and the kindness of God, and see the necessity of this message for your eternal salvation. We ought to reflect upon these things, until that unbelief is shamed away and we are overpowered by this message. Do we think about these things, or do we pay only the degree of attention we pay to some passing factor in this material world? Do you know the outline of the gospel, and yet it has never gripped your heart; it has never convicted you of your need and brought you to Christ? There is all the difference in the world.
Grace can slip out of our lives so easily. At any time we can be losing the grace given to us by God: the spiritual worth and value and energy and commitment, and even the understanding. These things can disappear. It can happen to any of us, at any time. ‘What,’ you think, ‘me? I've been a Christian 20 years, 40 years, 60 years.’ Yes, even then. Sometimes it takes a very comfortable form. You don't feel any anxiety; you don't feel any doubt; you don't feel troubled. It is just that you are comfortably neglecting everything, and riding along the Christian life on the surface, and the devil will leave you like that, because grace is still leaking out by the day.
‘Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed’ – because this is the measure to prevent it. We may let our minds wander in worship or in the hearing of God's word, so that we don't focus attention. It’s easily done; it can become a habit. We can listen to the word of God without any great attention, and we lose our awe and wonder at it. We can lose our conviction because we are neglecting the word of God. A day passes, two days, three days: no personal devotions with the word. Things are slipping away. Suddenly, when you're ripe for attack, the devil will mount a series of doubts somehow, and you’ll be shaken. This is Christ speaking to us as believers. He has spoken through his word into our minds and into our hearts. How can we neglect that? How can we travel lightly with that in our hands? But we can. So the exhortation comes. Every day remember the blessings of God. Every day, as you read the word, treasure the fact that Christ has spoken to you, and saved you, and spoken to you many times, convicting your heart and blessing you and urging you forward. Every day rehearse these things back to him in praise and thanksgiving. Choose a doctrine; list them in the back of the Bible, on a piece of paper.
Sometimes people say, ‘Pastor, I don't know what to pray for. How do I pray for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes? I run out of things to say.’ Make a list. Life is busy and complex; we all benefit from this. I must praise God for various things. Write them down. I have got people to pray for. I desire to have a ministry of intercession laid upon my heart. I have my church to pray for, and my work and my testimony. I have my sins to confess and to pray for grace, naming certain things I struggle with day by day. There are so many things; the time is gone. And if sometimes, through fatigue or whatever, you find concentration doesn't sustain you for more than five minutes earnest prayer, then take a break and read more versus, and then go back to prayer and pick up your agenda.
How do we deal with wandering minds in worship? In many churches these days they set out to help you with this, but it isn't helpful. They fill the worship service with novelties. You never know what's coming next. It's impossible to read the Scriptures only and sing the praises of God in psalms and hymns only, and then hear the word preached. There must be other things bought in, and oh, the number of novelties and innovations that creep in! Some of them seem innocent at first. ‘Let’s have choir items; let's have an instrumentalist playing an instrument, and then we’ll all applaud. That'll be a nice change, a nice novelty. Then perhaps we’ll have the little children coming on the platform. That always adds some charm and considerable interest.’ But what is it doing? The effect of it is that, if I have a problem with it, I will never face up to my inattention in worship, my wandering mind, and my lack of fervour, involvement, and participation. I will never see it, because there are all sorts of alternative things brought in to cheer me up, and brighten the service as a distraction to me. In this way congregations of hundreds can all go astray together, while the church maintains their good humour and cheerfulness with all sorts of things that don't belong in worship and have nothing to do with worship. Tragically, that is what is going on in many places. One of the great things about simple worship is that you know if your heart is growing cold, if you're not involved. If you're not engaging, you know it, and you are convicted, and you know what you must do to put that matter right.
If you lose conviction you will be exposed to temptation, you will lose zeal, lose enjoyment of the Scriptures, so that the sermons are dull, and Scripture reading is a chore. You will run steadily downhill. It will affect your life, so you will react badly to hard circumstances. Your temper, if you had one, will reassert itself perhaps after many years. You will be more vulnerable to sin. Satan will take it gently. That person’s heart has grown cold, inattentive to worship, no longer enjoying the things of God, no longer committed. Just little sins at first, building up to a big fall, or a tragedy, or something of that kind. Through the medium of the word of God I will be helped massively in all these respects.