Another devotional page...

Here is another page from my railroad-themed summer devotional book for kids:

May 23

Riding a Mountain Railway

“And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough , and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

Last week we talked a bit about the song “Life’s Railway to Heaven”. Today we want to think about that song some more. The first verse goes like this:

"Life is like a mountain railway,
With an engineer that’s brave;
We must make the run successful,
From the cradle to the grave;
Watch the curves, the fills, the tunnels;
Never falter, never fail;
Keep your hands upon the throttle,
And your eyes upon the rail."

Almost every verse of this song ends with those words, “Keep your hands upon the throttle, and your eyes upon the rail.” What does it mean? The throttle is the lever that controls the flow of fuel or power to an engine. So the engineer has to keep his hand on the throttle if he wants the train to keep going.

“Keeping our hands upon the throttle” in our Christian life means to keep on keeping on, to keep walking with the Lord and obeying His Word, and not to give up. We should not turn back to our old way of life, to the way we used to be before we were saved. Today’s verse reminds us of that. Jesus wants His followers to be faithful servants of His. If we are going to be faithful servants, we must walk in His ways and obey His Word. We must not give up when hard things come into our lives. What if we are tempted to give up? Will we still be saved? Yes! We can never lose our salvation. But we will not be really happy unless we are walking close to the Lord and serving Him.

* Thank God for your salvation. Ask Him to help you be faithful in obeying His Word and walking with Him each day. Ask Him to show you ways He would like you to serve Him.