Don't Lose It

Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 2John 1:8

Yesterday I played in a golf tournament called the Orange Blossom Special. We had four player teams with the task of finishing the round with a ball marked with a large orange spot still in our possession. Each player had to substitute this special ball for their own every fourth hole. If you lost this ball your team was out of the major part of the competition. Talk about pressure! I mean we have water holes on this course people, desert terrain, sticker bushes, rabbit holes. You've seen nothing until you have seen 4 women over the age of...(OK that I won't tell, some of them read this blog!) wade into nasty water up to their shorts to find a stupid golf ball. Well, we finished the round with the orange ball, but we didn't win a reward. As Judy said, "we set our goal to low, we came in with the ball, but we forgot to score well with it"!
We came in with the ball, for one good reason...we protected it. We kept our eyes on it continually, we chased it down into difficult places, some of us didn't hit it too hard as we were afraid to hurt it.
In the passage above John is talking about losing what you have learned of God's truth to false teachers. Once God has led you to sense of peace and calm about a situation, or has helped you uncover an important truth through Bible study or a life lesson, protect it. Keep your eyes on it at all times so you don't lose it. If it starts to slip away from you chase it down in prayer and hold on to it in your heart.
We do it for a silly golf ball in a game. How much more important it is to do it for God's truth in real life.