Where are your spiritual emergency devices?

I was worried about my brother. He lives alone in sheltered accommodation which suits his special needs. Major surgery was on the horizon, and I knew that he might face some balance issues afterwards. So, in advance I asked him about his emergency care call button, wondering where he was keeping it.

He had no idea, of course, which was not a good start. It was supposed to be either always hanging around his neck or within reach near at hand, and its absence would certainly not have been much use in a real emergency or after a fall! After much searching, I finally located it well hidden under a pile of socks deep in a bedroom drawer.

Mind you, there was a fancy iPad-looking thing fitted to the wall of his lounge which he could also have used to summon help. He has had several training sessions on how to use it, but when I asked him to show me how he would call for help on that device, he shrugged and indicated complete bemusement.

He had all the technical tools that he might need in a crisis, but they were of no value to him. One was lost through neglect while the other was inaccessible for want of understanding. There was a wealth of helpful assistance and support right there in his flat, but it was completely denied to him, not through design or lack of provision, but through neglect and misunderstanding.

The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews was really concerned about neglect in our lives, too. In Hebrews 2:3 he asked how we could escape God’s wrath if we ignore such a great salvation. I feel challenged by that. Is it possible that through the busyness of my life and schedule I have allowed vital, life-giving spiritual tools to become neglected, or even lost under a pile of daily essentials?

Some years ago, I was pastor to a large and thriving congregation in Wales. A senior member of that church and his wife had been faithful to attend all its many services as often as they were able for more than 50 years. When he developed a heart condition and was hospitalised, my wife visited his wife. She tried to comfort the worried spouse by reminding her of the many promises God has given to us in the Bible for situations just like hers.

The distress of her host was evident. “I don’t know any promises of God,” she sobbed. It appears that her life-giving spiritual tools were lost or at least rendered ineffective despite decades of church attendance.

When we were Elim missionaries in Zimbabwe, a wonderful local couple joined our work in the city of Mutare where we had planted a congregation. Sadly, shortly after they arrived among us, the husband suffered a tragic heart attack and died in his back garden.

Several weeks later his widow spoke to the young congregation and shared how that for years she had regularly made room for the Word of God and prayer in her life, and that this discipline had sustained her through bereavement. She warned the new believers not to wait until problems come before getting into their Bibles, and not to neglect the power of the Word of God to prepare us to meet all kinds of life’s challenges.

So, where are your spiritual emergency devices? Where would you turn in your Bible to find help in a crisis? Hebrews 4:16 tells us to approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Personal worship, prayer and Bible reading need to be part of our daily routine and not left hidden in a drawer under dozens of more pressing mundane demands. Our spiritual life and wellbeing in a time of need may depend upon it.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.