Spiritual Lifeguard

Have you ever had a moment in your life where you felt like you needed to be rescued? Have you ever been swimming and needed to be saved? Have you ever had a lifeguard warn you of a rip current, kept you out of danger or saved your life?

If you are a Christian, God has given you an important job: to be a spiritual lifeguard. Here are a few roles that lifeguards have:

1. Be able to rescue and save others.

When I was an ocean guard, we went to the beach early in the morning to train before swimmers came. We swam, did practice rescues, paddle surfed, ran and trained physically. We got our bodies physically stronger every day so we would be ready to rescue anyone. As a spiritual lifeguard, you are called to train—to train in godliness. And this training is one you can do at the start of the day before you encounter anyone else. Spiritual lifeguards train in God’s Word—knowing who we are in Christ and knowing the message of the Gospel is the best way to train. Daily, we should train our spiritual lungs in prayer, giving God every care and asking for His help. We should also train together by spending time in fellowship each week.

2. Be focused.

Lifeguards must stay alert and focused when they are on the stand. They are to keep their eyes focused on the people and also what is around to ensure everyone is safe. As a spiritual lifeguard, throughout your day, you are called to be focused and alert. Watch out for things that will distract you and pull you away from the mission. You need to be on the lookout for people who are in distress or danger.

3. Be ready.

At any moment, any hour, any minute, lifeguards must be ready to go and rescue someone who needs to be saved. When you rescue someone as a lifeguard, what you hand to them is not yourself, but rather a flotation device. You swim out with rescue equipment. As spiritual lifeguards, we carry the rescue torpedo of the Gospel. We give the Gospel—the message of the cross—and tell them, “Grab on!”

Jesus is the only One who can ultimately save us. And Jesus has placed us on a rescue mission. As spiritual lifeguards, we know that every single person needs to be rescued from their sin, including ourselves. Once we are saved, we can now join the mission to save others. Are you in?