The Anchor

1/21/19             Nya  (see conversation HERE)

How can Christians keep from "drifting" in their faith?

It can be a tremendous blessing to grow up in a Christian household, to learn and begin to live out the great truths of the Gospel from a very young age.

But it can also be a curse, if we are lulled into thinking the Gospel is "old hat" because of that same background, and if we begin to see the faith as something to take for granted. Without paying careful attention, our faith can easily drift into worldly waters.

It reminds me of something I lost because of drifting on a Minnesota lake as a teenager. I had worked all winter to build a hydroplane (a small racing boat) and had saved up for the better part of a year bagging groceries to buy an outboard motor for it. The day I bought the motor, I was so impatient that I decided to take it for a test run before more permanently securing it to the boat. Long story short, the motor fell off the boat, and because I didn’t have an anchor to keep me from drifting I was never able to find it again.

I met a young lady named Nya at the coffeeshop, who kindly agreed to talk about her beliefs and confidently spoke of her salvation. But I soon found that, like so many people who have grown up in a Christian household, she has been drifting from the simple faith in Jesus of her childhood into the treacherous waters of faith in oneself and one’s own goodness and good works. It took a lengthy and, at times, somewhat awkward conversation to help her remember our true source of salvation – not our own good works but the good work of Jesus, when, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Hebrews 2:1 warns “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away”, and later in Hebrews 6 it reminds us of our need for an “…an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” – the hope that comes from God’s promises made and realized in Jesus as we read in God’s word.

In the same chapter we read “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” We need to be anchored in God’s Word and in our faith in Jesus, and we need to be anchored in and around God’s people who can remind and encourage us not to let go of that anchor.

I hope Nya will anchor her faith to Jesus, with the help of regular time in God’s Word and with regular fellowship, prayer, worship, and learning with God’s people. Let’s all grab hold of the anchor so we don’t drift away!

Thanks to Nya, for allowing me to record our conversation. It can be seen at https://youtu.be/xpePEcJ_QUo on my YouTube channel.