Drifting at Sea
You and friends are in a sailboat, enjoying a relaxing day at sea. As it gets dark you find a quiet and secluded cove to anchor the boat for the night, keeping you safe and secure while you sleep. One problem though, you forget to drop anchor. While you and your friends are in the boat, it slowly drifts out to sea. From inside the boat, you cannot feel this movement, but after hours of not being anchored, the boat has ended far away from shore. In the morning, you climb up to the deck, only to be horrified to find yourself in the middle of the ocean, not even knowing where you are, let alone how you will get back. Failing to anchor your sailboat has allowed it to slowly, almost unnoticed, drift away from safety.
As you look back over the past weeks or months, maybe even years, do you find yourself asking, “How in the world did I get here?” You find yourself far from where you want to be, maybe not even acutely aware that you have been drifting off course or away from safety. Over time you neglect your physical health and then one day you look in the mirror or get on the scale, and it hits you, you are overweight and in poor shape. You spend hours upon hours online shopping, always finding something you “want,” until one day you wonder how you will ever pay off the credit card balance. You neglect your relationships, leading you to isolation, wondering what happened. Whatever it might be, you have drifted from where you wanted to be, or, thought you would be.
The same can be said of your relationship with God. Your once red-hot faith begins to cool. You slowly begin to neglect your spiritual life, just little by little, until one day you wonder how you got so far away from God.
The writer of Hebrews gives us this warning – “We must pay careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (2:1). Drifting has disastrous consequences – you wake up one day and find yourself drifted outside of God’s will, trapped in sin, guilt, doubt, defeat, maybe even hopelessness.
The apostle Peter also gives us a warning; to be on guard against anything and everything that carries us away from God. “Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen” (2 Peter 3:17-18). Note: Context for these verses is all of 2 Peter. The “therefore” points back to the two main themes of the epistle – (1) be on guard so as to not be led astray by false teachers or false ideologies, and (2) an exhortation to grow in Christ.
The rebellious spirit in all of us, due to our sin nature, causes us to naturally drift away from God. It takes commitment and continuing work to not only stay close to Jesus, but also to strive to become more like Him.
How do you get back to land? How do you stop the drift?
Begin by making a decision to not live that way any longer. Realize that you are drifting and be willing to change course. Repent of your disobedience. Then ask God to, by His great love, power, grace, and mercy, through the power of the Holy Spirit, begin to change you and draw you back into submission and obedience to Him. Anchor yourself to the Word of God.
Today, if you find yourself drifting at sea, and we all drift from time to time, look to God to help you begin the journey back into His good and perfect will.
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