Hebrews 2:1: “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”

July 23rd, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

English teachers like to remind us regularly that whenever we read the word therefore, we should go back and see what it is there for. This verse tells us to, therefore give heed to the things we have heard; and if we go back to the previous chapter, we can see what it is we’ve heard: “God spoke through prophets” and He now speaks through His Son (Heb.1:1–2). We are to heed God’s word to us. The Holy Spirit is raising a warning against taking the words God spoke through the prophets and His Son lightly, because doing so will lead to a slow slipping away from God. The caution against drifting is one thing every believer needs to continually heed and be reminded of. We all know many examples of people failing to heed this warning and slowly moving away from a relationship with God.

Many years ago a man by the name of John Harvard was a pastor in New England and was sold out to Jesus Christ. And although he came from a very wealthy family, wealth wasn’t important to him. Telling people about a personal relationship with God was the most significant thing in his life. Late in life, his heart’s desire became to train young pastors for ministry. At his death, his entire estate, including his library, went toward starting a college. Since the college was established to train pastors, a daily prayer meeting was held on campus and every student on campus majored in the Bible. That small college was named after the founder—Harvard University. A similar story can be told of other Ivy League schools, including Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth, also all founded to train pastors. In fact until approximately 150 years ago, all the presidents of those universities were pastors. So why are those campuses famous today for many things except their strong Christian witness? The answer is simple—they drifted away.

“LORD, keep us from drifting away from You this day we pray.”