Are You A Drifter Or A Rower?
Are you a drifter or a rower?
By which do we gain the most strength? By drifting with the stream or by rowing against it?
Think of the Christian’s life as a river. The Heavenly city is upstream. The currents are the daily battles we face against self and the world.
The drifter may appear to be reserving his strength by going with the flow but by doing nothing he grows weaker and gently drifts away from his destination.
But the rower? As he rows, through the strength of Christ in him, against the current, against the desires of his old sinful nature, against the ways of the world, so his strength increases. And he is the one that reaches the Heavenly City at last.
To be at ease and drift along is attractive to our flesh but it’s not by gaining our life in this world that we reach home, rather it’s by losing our life in this world that we gain eternal life.
‘He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.’
It’s by fighting the good fight against the current of the world, in losing the ease of giving in to our fleshly desires and in rowing against the tide of our natural inclinations, that we grow stronger in Christ. Until slowly and surely, stroke by stroke, we draw a little closer to our Heavenly home.
But I’m so weak you say, yes you are and so am I. We can’t fight the current alone but that’s the beauty of the gospel, the wonder of Christ in us, His grace is always sufficient and His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
So row on, trusting Jesus to be to you all you need Him to be and carry you safely home.
‘Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you…. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’
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