Friday, May 28, 2004

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Galatians 5.14 NRSV)

---

Leighton Ford, in his book THE CHRISTIAN PERSUADER, tells about the time his little girl, Debbie Jean, was lost. His wife had left Debbie Jean and her four-year-old brother with Leighton while she went to the store. Suddenly Debbie Jean was gone. A neighbor's child saw her heading toward her school which was only a few hundred yards away. They looked at the school, and no Debbie Jean. While his wife checked the shopping center across the street, Leighton Ford went to the principal and they looked through the class rooms. There was no sign of her. Panic gripped his heart; he remembered stories about men picking up little girls. He wondered if he ought to call the police. He walked up and down the road calling her name.

Half an hour later when he had all but reached the end of his rope, the little girl came around the corner of the school smiling. The explanation was simple but hard to take. She had gone to the candy store just beyond the school, met a friend, and had gone on to her friend's home a half mile away.

Later (after the thunder and lightning and tears were over), Leighton Ford reflected on the incident. During the nearly two hours that Debbie Jean was missing, nothing else mattered. In his study were books to be read, letters to be answered, articles to be written, planning to be done. But all that was forgotten. He could think of only one thing--his lost little girl. He had only one prayer and he prayed it a thousand times: "Oh God, help me to find her."

That is the kind of passion we need in serving Christ.

---

Lord Jesus, help me to have a single passion in serving God’s people with your salvation. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

---

Help Promote Devotions.Net | Past Devotions

---

| Home | Bible | Devotions | Humor | Visitors | Links |