The Superior Messenger - Part 5

READ: Hebrews 2:1-4
Because of this, it was necessary for us to pay much closer attention to the things heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels was certain, and every deviation and disobedience received just punishment, how shall we escape neglecting so great a salvation, which at first, having received it spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard? God also was giving proof with signs and wonders and various powers and distributions of the Holy Spirit, according to his will.

REFLECT
"Lest we drift away." The word I have translated "drift away" is an extremely interesting and important word in terms of helping us understand how someone who is saved can actually lose their salvation and find themselves outside the grace of God. I have been a minister for most of the last 33 years of my life and I have yet to meet a Christian who got up one morning and suddenly, on the spot and completely out of the blue decided that he no longer believed in God. We really don't fall away from God, but rather we "drift away" from God.

Barclay in his commentary says of this Greek word that, "it is used of something flowing or slipping past; it can be used of a ring that has slipped off the finger; of a particle of food that has slipped down the wrong way; of a topic that has slipped into a conversation; of a point which has escaped someone in the course of an argument; of some fact that has slipped out of the mind; of something that has ebbed or leaked away. It is regularly used of something which has carelessly or thoughtlessly been allowed to become lost" (Barclay, Hebrews, page 21).

No faithful Christian just suddenly decides to leave God, but many Christians have gradually drifted away without realizing it, until one day they do wake up and realize that they no longer love God or perhaps even believe in him. How does this happen. It happens by neglecting our relationship with God. Every day we do not consciously work on our relationship we run the risk of drifting away until we are no longer anywhere near to God in our hearts. When we don't pay much closer attention, we allow our ships to drift out of God's harbour and back into the storm tossed seas of a self-centered and worldly life.

PRAY
Help me, Father, today to know exactly where I am in relationship with you. May I not ignore you or your word so that I will remained anchored to the rock and secure in your grace. May I not take this relationship for granted so that through inattention I would find myself one day far away from you. The moment I start to drift, please Father, do something in my life to wake me up. Also, Father, help me to call out to those brothers and sisters who, through their inattention to spiritual matters and priorities, are slipping away without even knowing it. May I throw them the lifeline of your word and may they grab hold and return to the harbour of your grace.

OBEY
Dear brother or sister, are you letting salvation slip away from you because you are focused on everyone and everything else except God and his will for your life? Are you adrift spiritually right now or are you firming anchored to your God by paying much closer attention to his word?