"Recharge daily" was the third point of Mitch Knapp's recent sermon on "Following Christ's Example."

Throughout the sermon, he gave examples of how Christ drew His strength from God to meet the demands of spreading the gospel and serving the needs of mankind by intense prayer, meditation and dwelling on the Word of God. These three elements seemed to be the preparation, indeed, the foundation necessary to live a powerful, victorious Christian life.

If Christ, the Son of God, needed those three elements for success in His ministry, how much more should we need to fit them into our daily routine, if we hope to make a difference for God?

I quickly recognized that my lack of attention to these important details of the Christian walk had sadly diminished my spiritual growth and rendered fairly ineffective my Christian witness.

Had I been content to "just get by" by having my spiritual senses "titillated" by inspiring messages on the Sabbath, only to return to daily life seemingly unaffected by what I'd heard? Was I the seed sown that heard the Word, grew for a short time, but then withered for lack of nourishment? In taking an honest look at myself, I had to respond, "Guilty as charged!"

I was without excuse. My cares were no greater than anyone else's. My day, too, consisted of 24 hours. Those 24 hours were filled with the activities I chose.

If I neglected the "weightier" things such as daily recharging through prayer, meditation and studying God's Word, God granted me the freedom to do so, and must have watched sadly as I denied His power to give me the best: power to discern and resist evil, power to meet whatever task came before me with confidence and wisdom, power to let His light for good, truth and righteousness shine through me to the world.

Will I act on the encouragement to pray, meditate and study, or will I forget about it and continue to deny God's power in my life? Will I make the best choices for my allotted 24 hours, or will I revert to the status quo?

I resolve to daily recharge by prayer, meditation and study of God's Word, fully confident that "He who has begun a good work in you will complete it" (Philippians 1:6).