"And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Hebrews 6:11-12 ESV).

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Last month, my family spent a few nights on the east coast with an older couple who basically adopted my husband one summer when he was training at the Coast Guard base near their home. While talking with the wife, a godly woman whom I want to emulate in many ways as I raise my kids, she said she’d felt called to read through the Bible 50 times! I think she said she’s already completed 30 read-throughs. Now, in her mid-70s, she is hoping the Lord will bless her with 20 more years on Earth to complete her goal. She is one of the most faithful Christian women I know, and based on her desire to continue to study the Bible until the day the Lord takes her home, it is clear she understands that diligence in her faith is important for spiritual maturity and closeness with the Lord. She could easily say she knows the Bible very well at this point and no longer needs to study it. She could try to coast in her faith based on things she has learned and spiritual disciplines she practiced in her younger years, but because of her love of God, it is her desire to live out the rest of her days diligently reading God’s Word so that she might have “the full assurance of hope until the end” (v. 12).

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The writer of Hebrews was encouraging believers to have the same intention and earnestness in their faith. In other translations, earnestness is translated as diligence. According to one Bible commentary, diligence is the attention we give something or diligent action. We are not called to be passive in our faith. We are supposed to be growing, but it is easy to become sluggish.

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According to David Guzik’s commentary on these verses, we should not “let discouragement make us sluggish, leading to the sense that we may as well give up. First, we lose the desire to press on; then we lose the desire to go on.” He points toward the idea of drifting we have been talking about this summer; it is a process of slowing down, losing hope, laying aside good habits, and checking out of healthy relationships, until at some point you’ve completely left the path of following the Lord.  

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Truthfully, I have felt some of this sluggishness this summer. My regular Bible studies and small group are on hiatus, the routines of the school year have been paused, and some days I feel a little adrift over here in my boat on the ocean of faith.  

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Thankfully, the writer of Hebrews offers an action step we can take when we find ourselves drifting – we can imitate those who are living out their faith as they wait on the promises of God to be fulfilled. Further on in verse 13, the writer points to Abraham as someone who waited patiently for the son God had promised. The Bible is full of people just like us who had to endure hard seasons and face doubts to remain diligent in their faith. God also gives us people today, like my dear friend, who have remained faithful through many trials and storms. She keeps on praying, reading the Word, attending Bible studies, showing up every week at Sunday service and sharing about Jesus every chance she gets. These actions do not make her a Christian, but they do reinforce what she believes about her Savior Jesus Christ and fortify her to stay the course when she may be tempted to become sluggish in her walk with the Lord.

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Her earnestness in seeking the Lord is inspiring to me. I am reevaluating some of my spiritual habits to see where I might intentionally put in more relationship-building time with Jesus and not just study time for writing devos or teaching Bible study. It encourages me to think that once I begin to take action it will build on itself – more listening prayer time will increase my faith, and then, as my faith increases, I will hopefully want to study more and spend more time in prayer. I can leave my sluggishness behind with the help of the Holy Spirit.

So, where are you this summer with your earnestness to pursue the things of God so that you don’t drift and lose hope? Do you have mature believers in your life whom you can emulate? Could you also be that person for someone else who is new to following Jesus? Spend some time in prayer and ask God where you can be more diligent in walking out your faith and how you can be an example or follow the example of a patient, faithful follower of Christ.

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Heavenly Father, please help me to not slowly drift away from you. May you spur my heart and mind to not be sluggish, but rather to seek after you and be obedient to that which you have called me. Help me to look not only to the heroes of our faith like Abraham, but to Christians in my day-to-day life that I might emulate. Fill me with your Holy Spirit I pray, so that I might have the faith and patience to wait on all that you have promised me in Christ. In his mighty name, I pray, Amen.