in the entire association of your brothers in the world.” (1 Pet. 5:9) Yes, Satan is using the same tactics on your brothers elsewhere, and they are standing faithfully! You can too. Prove it by getting back in the Christian race. Go to the congregation meetings! Do not put it off!

OTHER ATTEMPTS TO CAUSE YOU TO FORGET

There are many other ways in which Satan the Devil endeavors to stumble Christians and make them forget their decision to serve God. For example, someone in the congregation may say or do something that causes one to take personal offense. And instead of straightening out the trouble in the Scripturally prescribed way, the offended one allows the matter to become such a big issue in his mind that he leaves the Christian congregation.

But think: Is it pleasing to Jehovah God to permit anyone or anything to interfere with your service to him or your relationship with his organization? Most definitely not! So do not allow such attempts of Satan to cause you to forget God and his service. You have nothing to gain and everything to lose by staying away from congregation meetings and the association with your brothers.

A Christian cannot afford to be ignorant of Satan’s designs, and one of his most successful tactics is to cause discouragement. (2 Cor. 2:11) For example, one minister recently quit the ministry, explaining that the reason was that there simply was no response to the Kingdom message. Although this may be true, and even if people become increasingly cold toward God, is this reason to quit? Consider the ministry of the prophet Jeremiah to his unresponsive, stiff-necked countrymen, of whom Jehovah said: “You must speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you; and you must call to them, but they will not answer you.”​—Jer. 7:27.

Although those Israelites were extremely cold toward God, Jeremiah faithfully continued preaching to them for some forty years. He got discouraged, true, and he thought about quitting, but his love of God’s truth impelled him to continue serving. He did not forget his decision to serve God. (Jer. 20:9) Copy that example, and if, for any reason, you have slowed down or abandoned God’s service, bestir yourself quickly and continue running the race for life. Do not allow Satan to have the satisfaction of causing you to go down into destruction. Take your stand against him! Assemble regularly with your brothers at congregation meetings! There you will find warm encouragement and the needed protection.

“Keeping Awake”

◆ The Hebrew name for the almond tree (shaqéd) literally means “the waker.” This is quite fitting since the almond is one of the earliest trees to bloom following the winter rest, blossoming as early as late January or early February in Palestine. In the Bible, at Jeremiah 1:11, 12, there is a play on words where the word “almond” (shaqéd) is followed by the expression “keeping awake” (shoqed): “The word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: ‘What are you seeing, Jeremiah?’ So I said: ‘An offshoot of an almond tree is what I am seeing.’ And Jehovah went on to say to me: ‘You have seen well, for I am keeping awake concerning my word in order to carry it out.’”