Drifting In Our Christianity
2Peter 3: 17-18 I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (NLT)
I was blessed last week to be away on vacation. As I was floating in the pool staring at the sky and talking to God, He spoke to my heart. What He simply said was, stop floating. I thought to myself, "Stop floating? I like floating it's simple, easy and doesn't require much effort...and therein lies the point God was trying to make.
God speaks to us in many ways beloved. Through prayer and reading Hid Word but also directly to our hearts. He uses metaphorical language as Jesus often did through parables. In this metaphor, God is showing us that the pool represents our life on this earth. Below the water line are the things of this world. The things that can easily distract us and pull us down. Things we can easily find ourselves sinking in if we are not careful. Pride, lust, greed, unforgiveness, anger, hatred, and all the things the devil will use if we let him. Remember, the devil will always use what you are willing to give him. Above the water line are the things of God. The sun, the sky, the stars...the very heavens themselves.
And there we sit on the water line. How we approach it determines how our walk with God will be. Some of us are treading water, keeping our head barely above the surface but still diving down into the depths of where we know we ought not be. Those of us who are like this are the double minded James spoke of:
If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. James 1: 5-8 (NLT)
We cannot have a divided loyalty.
We cannot continue to dive down into the depths of this world and not expect to
drown in it one day. In the days of Joshua, there was a man named Achan who had
divided loyalty. Joshua was leading
Now Achan was probably a good guy by the standards of the world. He was treading water, looking up to God but occasionally diving down into the things of the world. Achan had a problem with greed and he gave that greed over to the enemy and it was used against him.
