War on Spiritual Drift How to fight spiritual sluggishness before it carries you away. September 8th, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

 

War on Spiritual Drift

How to fight spiritual sluggishness before it carries you away.

September 8th, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

You don’t have to hate God to drift away from Him.

In fact, the most dangerous form of departure often begins with subtle neglect not outright rebellion. You stop paying attention. You grow numb. The passion you once had begins to dull. The prayers that once came easily now feel hollow. And over time, without meaning to, you wake up downstream wondering how you ever got there.

This is the danger the book of Hebrews warns us about in sobering terms. “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” (Hebrews 2:1)

Drifting is spiritual decay in slow motion. And its remedy isn’t found in a flash of emotion or a single mountaintop moment but in daily, gritty, intentional engagement with Christ.

Let’s look at how we recognize spiritual drift and, more importantly, how we fight it.

Be Grateful for the Alarm

If you feel yourself drifting, don’t panic. Start with gratitude. That internal alarm going off in your heart is evidence that God is working. The greatest danger isn’t realizing you’re drifting it’s drifting without knowing it.

Philippians 4:6 tells us to bring our fears to God “with thanksgiving.” Why? Because even in our desperation, we’re not alone. The Holy Spirit still speaks. Conviction still stirs. If your soul is trembling, it means your faith isn’t dead it’s awake enough to want help.

So thank God for the warning. Then prepare for the war.

Know That Life Is a Fight

Spiritual drift doesn’t happen because we’re bad swimmers. It happens because we’ve stopped rowing.

Life in Christ is upstream, not downstream. The culture around us and the sin within us flows in a direction that pulls away from Jesus. Left to ourselves, we’ll always drift toward distraction, not devotion.

That’s why Paul described life as a fight. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

And it’s why prayer isn’t a luxury it’s a lifeline. John Piper puts it this way. “Prayer is not an intercom to call the butler for another pillow. It’s a wartime walkie-talkie.” If we’re not treating life like war, we won’t pray like it is.

Don’t Wait to Feel Strong

You may think you need to feel spiritually energized to make progress. Not true. You need only the willingness to pick up the oars again.

The Holy Spirit isn’t the boat’s outboard motor while you lounge passively. He’s the strength in your arms, the endurance in your soul, and the fire in your chest as you fight to stay faithful. But you still need to row.

Hebrews 3:14 makes this crystal clear. “We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

Faith isn’t proven in a moment it’s sustained over a lifetime.

So how do we hold firm? How do we not drift? Hebrews offers six battle-tested strategies:

1. Fix Your Eyes on Jesus

When your soul is weary, the first command isn’t “try harder” it’s “look up.”

“Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.” (Hebrews 3:1)
“Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)

There’s a reason the New Testament gives us four Gospels, not one because we need constant, vivid reminders of who Christ is and what He’s done. Make the life of Jesus your daily meditation. See Him in His Word. Watch Him walk, weep, heal, confront, forgive, and die.

Let the sheer beauty of the Savior awaken the soul that’s grown dull.

2. Learn from the Faithful

Faith is contagious so surround yourself with those who have it. “Remember your leaders… imitate their faith.” (Hebrews 13:7)

Biographies, mentors, and spiritual friendships can stoke your fire like few other things can. You don’t need perfect examples just faithful ones. Learn from them. Watch how they pray, how they suffer, how they finish well.

3. Exhort One Another

You were never meant to row alone. “Exhort one another every day… that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13)

Sin whispers lies best in isolation. Community drowns those lies in truth. You need other believers to remind you what’s true when you can’t feel it, and you need to be that voice for someone else.

Don’t wait until you feel strong lean on others so you can become strong.

4. Interpret Discipline Correctly

Hard seasons don’t mean God has abandoned you. Often, they mean He loves you.

“The Lord disciplines the one he loves.” (Hebrews 12:6)

Suffering can feel like punishment, but in Christ, it’s refinement. It’s God saying, “I love you too much to let you drift.”
So, as Hebrews 12:12 says, “Lift your drooping hands.” Pick up the oars again. God’s discipline is not against you it’s for your holiness and your hope.

5. Preach the Promises

Drifting often begins with forgetting what God has said. Anchor yourself again in His Word.

“‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5)

That promise is stronger than fear. It’s more enduring than temptation. God’s Word is not an inspirational quote it’s spiritual oxygen. Breathe it daily.

6. Pray Like Your Life Depends On It

Because it does. “Now may the God of peace… equip you with everything good that you may do his will.” (Hebrews 13:20–21)

All your rowing, all your striving, all your effort it’s sustained by grace. God works in you what pleases Him. So pray often. Pray honestly. Pray desperately. Pray thankfully.

And most of all, pray this. “Keep me. Hold me. Don’t let go.”

That’s the prayer of every believer who knows how easy it is to drift and how faithful God is to bring us home.

Stay Awake, Stay Anchored

Drifting is real. It is dangerous. But it is not inevitable.

If you’ve noticed your affections waning, your passion cooling, or your prayers weakening, don’t ignore it. Don’t wait until you’re downstream. Start rowing today. Not in your own strength but in the power of the Spirit who is already in your boat.

He’s not calling you to coast. He’s calling you to fight. Not to earn His love, but to enjoy it again. And in every stroke, every struggle, every gasp for grace, He’ll be there faithful to the end.

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