Slow Drift

Scripture

"And the Lord said, "Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them... behold, I will feed them... with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink." (Jeremiah 9:13-15)

Observation

How does a nation with so much, walk away with so little... one step at a time. Israel slowly drifted from the ways of God. It wasn't an overnight failure; it wasn't a sharp 90 degree shift that turned them away from His plans for their future. It was one step at a time, one step after another, almost nonchalantly detaching themselves from their Lord.

The writer of Hebrews warns us even today of the same danger where it says, "For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)" It's a deliberate drift, like a creeping cancer, that may begin unnoticed to the unaware, will soon infect every part of our souls and separate us from the source of life, leading to a slow spiritual death.

Application

What are some of the symptoms that we must watch for that should sound the alarm, lest we enter that drift and get caught in its currents:

• When success is defined in terms of what I have, rather than who I am in Christ;
• When I rely more upon what I can do for myself, than upon what Christ can do for me;
• When the focus of my life rests upon the increase of things that are temporal, rather than the spiritual growth of my heart;
• When attaining status among man supersedes cultivating my inner character and convictions;

We are all susceptible to slowing drifting from the ways of God. In such a faced paced society, it's easy to fall in the mainstream of the busyness of life and allow ourselves to flow away from the essential things of God. And if we fail to consciously guard our hearts, we will walk away from Him, one step at a time.

Prayer

Father, thank you for reminding me of the warning signs that I must heed along the way. What you have done for me, and what you have provided is too precious to forfeit. May the warning alarm sound so loud and clear should I begin to drift from You and Your ways.