Don't draw back!

Have you ever started a project and a few days or weeks later you just didn't want to go through with it? The excitement was gone and the project no longer had the charm of novelty. You just gave up! I guess that has happened to most people on one or more occasions.

When this happens concerning practical or other "human" or "worldly" projects, it may not be detrimental or damaging in other ways than hurt pride or wasted time and money. When this, however, happens when it comes to the things of God, it could have everlasting implications.

Let's look at a verse in the Bible that talks about this.

"Now the just shall live by faith: but if [any man] draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10:38).

The just shall live by faith is an established fact. "Everybody" in evangelical circles knows that. It takes faith to please God, and it's by faith that we come to Him, live in Him and will eventually go to heaven to be with Him.

However, the rest of this verse says that if anyone (that's you and me) draw back, God is not pleased with us.

We want God to be pleased with us, so to avoid to get into this situation, we need to know what it means to "draw back".

To draw back comes from the Greek word hupostello, and it means to let down; shrink back from. It is translated draw back here in verse 38; withdraw in Galatians 2:12; shun in Acts 20:27; and keep back in Acts 20:20.

If Christians could not do this, God wouldn't warn us against it. So when this verse says if we draw back, it means that we CAN draw back. We should always check ourselves to see if we've become slack and are drawing back. Revelation 2:4 also warns about this: "Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love".

It's easy to be so used to the things of God that we take our life in Him for granted. However, the Bible encourages us to not be slack, but "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2).

Declaration:

I don't want to draw back from the things of God. I set my mind on getting to know Him better, learning more about God's ways and God's will, and I will "drink" the sincere milk of the Word so I can grow in wisdom and love. Help me do this today, Lord.