Drifting

Throughout the years I have observed that unless you take steps to prevent it, things naturally drift from a state of order to disorder. The house always needs to be cleaned, even though you just did it last week. Grass grows and needs to be cut. And even though you washed the car yesterday, it rained last night and needs to be washed again. Without much difficulty, we can all think of examples where this is true. The truth of the matter is that things left to themselves naturally move from a state of order to disorder.

Not only is this true of physical things, but also in our spiritual life – we have a tendency to drift. It can be said that in our spiritual walk if we are not moving forward, then we are drifting away. Truly, there is no such thing as standing still in the kingdom of God. We are cautioned of this in the Bible in the book of Hebrews where it says, "Therefore we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. "(Hebrews 2:1 RSV). The "therefore" in this verse refers to Hebrews, Chapter 1 where the author explains that it is through Jesus Christ that we are able to see the full revelation of God, and that is through Jesus that we are able to enter into Gods presence. The author then gently warns us in Chapter 2, knowing of our natural tendency to drift, to take steps to avoid drifting away from this truth.

None of us would purposely turn away from Jesus, but more likely, we are prone to slowly drifting from him day by day. Unless we take positive steps to move forward in our relationship with the Lord, we will drift away.

The Parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4-15) comes to mind. In this parable the soil represents the condition of the new believer's heart and the seed represents the Word of God. Even though in each example the new believer initially receives the Lord with great enthusiasm, in three out of four cases the new believer is unable to resist the tendency to drift away. The first  drifts away when the devil snatches the Word from him. In the second case, the believer gets a bit farther, but fails to become deeply rooted in the Word and the pressures of the world cause him to drift away. In the third case, the new believer drifts away due to the distractions and cares of the world. Only in the fourth case does the new believer refrain from drifting away. He accomplishes this by hearing and applying God's Word, and he is he able to produce fruit.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in his book Walk With God explains the processing of drifting. He says that, "drifting is always from a higher to a lower stage, from the divine to the human level, from the order of faith to the order of reason, from reason to senses and from senses to animalism. No one ever drifted into virtue, but anyone can drift into vice. this is because there is within every human heart a tendency toward decay, which begins to operate if it is not resisted. "

As children of God, we need to actively resist the tendency to drift; for drifting, like a cancer, eats away at our spiritual life until it is no more.

When we begin to drift, there are warning signals of which we should be aware. Awareness should then trigger resistance, and by resisting, we can avoid drifting. While reading William Ullathorne book, Patience and Humility, I identified four warning signals that I would like to share with you.

1. When pride prevails over obedience to God’s Word and his Church, humility dies.

2. When reason reigns over the authority of God’s Word and his Church, faith dies.

3. When the soul submits to the fleshly desires of the body, holiness becomes extinct.

4. When selfishness survives over charity, the spiritual life of man is no more.

We must take positive steps to avoid drifting. It requires a daily commitment to spend time with the Lord in prayer, in his Word, and in service to others. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 (RSV) "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?-unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" We need to be constantly aware of whether or not we are "holding to the faith," and to take the necessary steps to return to the Lord when we begin to turn away.

Consider Jesus' actions one day when he entered the temple. After he saw what was taking place he said, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers.'" (Matthew 21:13 RSV). Over the years the Israelites had drifted and allowed the temple to deteriorate from a place filled with the glory of the Lord to a den of robbers.  Over the years the Israelites had drifted and allowed the temple to deteriorate from a place filled wiht the glory of the Lord to a den of robbers.

The aposatle Paul rells us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (RSV) that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that we are to glorify God in our bodies. What would happen today if Jesus were to visit your temple? Would he find a place filled with the glory of the Lord, or would he have to start cleansing?

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