"that we do not drift away"
The writer, who is addressing Christians, does not warn against rejecting or denying salvation, but he warns against drifting away.
As I run across people who were at one time deeply involved in God's Kingdom and who are not now, I notice that their story involves drifting.
Rarely do I hear someone state that they awoke one morning and decided to reject all they had accepted - that they decided to become atheists, or deists, or agnostics.
Their story always involves drifting away....they let go of their anchor. They let the waves in the harbor carry them away from their safe mooring.
I notice often a sort of longing in their voices and a
glimpse of remembrance of safer days in their eyes,
but not always.
Always, though, they recognize that God did not let go of them -- that He did not cut the lines of their anchor -- they just let themselves loose and drifted away with the current.
I recall a hymn we often sang when I was growing up and still hear now occasionally. In fact, it was sung in one of the worship scenes in the movie Heaven is Real.
The hymn is Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,
and the words of the third verse are:
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy grace, Lord, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above.
The author of these words of spiritual honesty is Robert Robinson (1735-1790).
He was converted to faith in Christ under the preaching of George Whitefield, became a pastor, and had a wide-spread ministry.
But later, he drifted. As he recalled the experience, he reported that he had neglected spiritual things.
He did not pay close attention to his spiritual life - to praying and reading God's Word, to reminding Himself of the gospel each day, to thankfully praise God for his salvation, to join often with others of 'like precious faith.'
He just slipped away from harbor and drifted.
In an attempt to find peace, he began to travel.
One day, during one of his journeys, he met a young woman who was spiritually minded, one who had her anchor secure.
She was reading a small book, a popular hymn book.
To his astonishment, she was reading his hymn!
(Hymnals in those days were small books, with words only- no music)
(Hymnals in those days were small books, with words only- no music)
"What do you think of this hymn I have been reading?" she asked Robinson, handing him the book.
At first he tried to avoid her question, but she persisted and he eventually broke down and confessed who he was and how he had been living: adrift and out of communication with the Lord.
"But these 'streams of mercy' are still flowing," the woman assured him; and through her encouragement he returned to fellowship with the Lord and to his ministry.
It is easy to drift with the current. I know. I have done it myself.
And it is hard to return against the stream.
But He is there to help us come back to His loving arms.
He never gives up on us.
Our salvation was purchased at a great price. It give us great promises and blessings, and leads to a great inheritance.
How can we neglect it?
Oh, by the way, in case you've forgotten, here are the words to the first verse of Robinson's hymn:
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise!
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the Mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love!
(When I was a child I remember singing this hymn often in church and when we came to the fourth line, the children shouted the words as loudly as we could! The adults in the audience - some of them thought it was funny - some of them probably rolled their eyes - but you know, now, as an adult, whenever I come to the fourth line, I still want to yell it out as loudly as I can - those streams of mercy, never ceasing, do call for us to sing as LOUD AS WE CAN!)
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