April 27th - Colossians 1:22-23

Colossians 1:22-23 You are holy and blameless as you stand before [Christ] without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. What Christ has done for us is absolutely amazing. Failed and sinful as we are, he has totally forgiven us and made us right with God. He has made it possible for us to stand before him, holy and blameless and without fault. But that doesn’t mean we can now take it easy and do what we want. We need to stand firm in our faith and ensure we don’t slip away from the truth. In my experience, very few people who drift away from Christian faith do so because they suddenly disbelieve it. What normally happens is that they become distracted and busy with other things. Gradually, their work, family, sport or hobby claims their attention and they find it inconvenient to attend worship. Sometimes they move house and find it difficult to find another church in which they feel at home, or their children join a sports team on a Sunday morning and they find it impossible to get to church. They simply drift. At first, they are conscious that they are drifting, but after a while, their minds move on and they totally forget about their faith. This can happen surprisingly quickly, so we all need to be alert to the need to maintain strong and helpful rhythms in our Christian lives. God has given us the gift of a weekly Sabbath, which is an opportunity to refocus our lives on him. We all need the refreshment and renewal of that day, but we cannot wait the whole week for God’s blessing. Amid the busyness of our lives, we need to ensure that each day we find opportunities to praise God and listen to him. The way that you find this refreshment may differ from other people, but making time to meet with God and allowing him to bless and equip you for the challenges of life is essential. Drifting away is so serious that we need to ensure we do everything possible to avoid it happening. Question What are you doing to ensure that you don’t drift away from your faith in Christ? Prayer Loving God, help me to stay close to you throughout this and every day. Amen