Are You Moving Forward or Drifting Backwards?

Imagine you are in a boat, paddling upstream. You are taking in all the sights and enjoying them, when you become curious. You want to look behind you and see all the progress you have made and your arms are getting tired of paddling, so you decide to stop and look back at where you have been. You see the rocky path you paddled over and remember how difficult it was, wishing you had some help to get you over the rough waters. It was a struggle but you made it. Right before those rough waters, you remember the serene glass like water and how you paddled through it with much ease. You remembered the fawn taking a drink along the riverbank as if it hadn’t even recognized your presence. While you are looking back at where you have been, you forget to keep your focus on where you are going and before you know it, you have drifted backwards into the rough water, struggling once again. This is exactly what happens when we take our focus off Christ and place it on our circumstances, our past, or something else. We end up drifting backwards and we end up right back into the rough waters of discouragement and disappointment. Going back to the boat analogy, if you are paddling upstream and you stop paddling, you are not going to remain stagnant, instead you will drift backwards. The same is true for your journey with Christ. When you take your focus off him and place your focus on where you have been – things you have done, people that have hurt you – you are not moving forward in your relationship with Christ and you are not staying in the same place. You are drifting backwards! God desires that our relationship with him be one of continual forward motion – of continual trust and continual surrender. This means that you consciously make the decision to choose to trust, surrender and follow God each day. It’s not easy, but God will give you the strength and endurance you need to make it.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)