It is so easy to go through life sloppy, meaning falling into conversations, doing what is expected of us, etc. But this is not how God’s servants should live life. There are no vacations from God or the opportunities he sends us. We read in James 2:14-17 (this is a letter written to believers not unbelievers), “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Again this has nothing to do with the individual’s salvation but the individual’s sanctification or walk with God.

We read in 2 Kings 5:1-4, Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by Him the Lord had given the victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper. And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman’s wife. Then she said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.” And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel.” As we move through this encounter, he reluctantly takes the advice from the prophet, Elisha, and in the process is cured of his leprosy. Consider for a moment this young girl from Israel. She was taken captive, she was young, she was forced into servitude for a leper and his wife. But rather than being filled with anger, resentment, or self-pity, she chooses to be intentional and direct her master to be healed. She could have even said, as do so many of us, “I will pray for him”, but offer nothing else. But she didn’t. As God’s ambassador, she served Him before an unbeliever.

So, what holds us back from being like this “young girl from Israel”. It is easy to be busy and distracted. With the television on, our phones continually making noise indicating something new on social media, how many opportunities do we miss with our family and others because rather than being focused and intentional with our time we allow our minds to be divided into multiple things. Jesus intentionally and deliberately gave all of His attention to a situation or an individual, then He moved onto the next individual. There was nothing half-hearted concerning our Savior. May we seek to emulate the One True Master, Jesus and be continually intentional rather than allowing ourselves to be simply absorbed into our busy lives, missing out on countless opportunities in the process.