Drifting

On August 17, 2008 Pastor Darrell used in his sermon Hebrews 2:1 which says, "For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it." He then went on to ask, "Why would the Bible say not to drift away if it was not possible to drift away?" This is a very obvious but good question. The question touches on the issue of eternal security (another blog for another day), but I'd like to focus simply on drifting right now. I would like to look closer at Hebrews 2:1. It begins by saying "For this reason" ... for what reason? To be able to understand and logically interpret this, we must read before this in Chapter 1 to find out what reason he is talking about. As Pastor Darrell teaches CONTEXT IS KING. So, if you read Chapter 1 to get context, you find that it talks about God who spoke long ago to our fathers in the prophets. It talks about God in the last days speaking through His Son. It talks about Christ being made lower than the angels for a while but then given a greater name and place than the angels. It also mentions the angels being ministering spirits for the sake of us who will inherit eternal life. So what this verse is saying is that FOR THIS REASON .... meaning that since God has spoken to us through prophets, and angels, and even His Son .... since God has so clearly communicated to us through signs, miracles, wonders, prophecies, and undeniable events .... since His chosen vessels sacrificed so much .... since His only begotten Son became flesh and gave His life for us .... that FOR THIS REASON we should pay closer attention to what we have heard so that we may not drift away from it. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

I was thinking about drifting after the sermon and was reading Proverbs and came across Proverbs 19:15 and it seemed to explain some ways that maybe I tend to "drift". The verse says, "Laziness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle man will suffer hunger." Reading that started to convict me. I started to think about times where I've gotten lazy. Have you ever been there? Lazy in prayer time? Lazy in reading the word? Stay up late and forget about God? Sleep in instead of doing devotions? Watch tv instead of pray? Substitute any reason or excuse in place of spending time with God? We know that the problem is never with God, the problem is always with us. So we have to figure out where we are going wrong if we feel that we are drifting from God, or that our spirits are dry, or the heavens brass, or our spiritual man is starving. Pastor Darrell once said that "what you feed will grow, and what you starve will die." I think that is a very simple but very important statement. We need to watch what we feed in our lives, and we have to make sure to starve the wrong things out of our lives. We should be feeding the Spirit, and starving the flesh.