Drifting From Devotion

Have you ever drifted in your discipleship?

I have.

Drifting from devotion is so easy to do, and in the past it was commonplace for me to simply drift.  It is easy.  If I am honest, I notice myself starting to drift again. Oh but I have excuses. For one, I am really busy!  Even if we are not busy it is so easy to drift, without even noticing.  Skip a day of devotions, sleep in late, “I’ll do it later.,” and soon you find that you are adrift at sea.

I tend to think of myself as a boat.  Actually, I think it is a fitting metaphor for all Christians.   We are all like boats, out in the sea.  If a boat is out at sea, the captain needs to make sure the boat is pointed at the harbour and the engines need to be on.  If the captain is asleep, or the engines are not on (or the sails are torn or the oars broken…) the boat is not going to make to the safety of the harbour.  Boats don’t simply drift toward their destination and people do not drift toward holiness.

People do not drift toward Holiness.

Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.

That quote is from D. A. Carson.  It is true.   It makes me think of boats.  Discipleship takes discipline.  Drifting doesn’t. Let’s all pray for a deeper delight in our discipleship.  Will you join me in setting aside a specific time each day to focus on the Word and prayer in personal devotion?

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.  For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. ~ Hebrews 2