Have you ever rowed a raft on a river? If you have, then you probably know that when you row upstream, away from the falls, you have to keep going. If you stop rowing, you’ll inevitably drift backward, silently, imperceptibly toward the falls, toward danger. But as this happens, you may not realize that you’re drifting away.

The Christian life is like paddling against a rapidly flowing river. It takes a definite decision of our wills to live for Christ, but it takes no such definite decision to drift away. All you have to do is neglect your faith, even for a brief time, and before you know it, you’re headed straight for spiritual destruction.

You’ve probably heard the classic story about the wife who complained that her husband never sat next to her in the car anymore. He, the driver, turned to her and said, “But, dear, I never moved.” We’re the same way with God. Though sometimes we may feel far from Him, He never forsakes us. Instead, we allow ourselves to drift away from Him.

Such drifting in the Christian life seldom happens instantly. When we neglect our relationship with Jesus Christ, even for a short while, the drifting begins. Continued neglect leads to disaster. Someone has put this truth into an easy-to-understand word picture. To maintain a flow toward Christ, we must apply ourselves to the “oars”—the oars of Scripture reading and prayer which together provide for our devotional life. As we “row” toward Christ, we grow closer to Him and further from the crashing falls. But if we just let the oars sit in the water, we go wherever the river runs, in a direction toward crashing defeat.

If you’ve been drifting away from the Lord, then I urge you to draw near to Him today. Make a conscious decision to apply yourself to the oars of faith, interacting with God daily through His Word and through prayer.

“Thank you!” Two simple words that let us know we’re appreciated for what we do and who we are.

When was the last time those words crossed your lips as you prayed to God?

I believe the Scriptures place a great deal more emphasis upon gratitude than we realize. In fact, the Scriptures consider thankfulness and its antithesis, thanklessness, as extremely important issues. Throughout the Bible, we’re called again and again to praise and thank God.

Most people have Christianity absolutely backward. They suppose that the motive of the Christian life is to perform good deeds in the hope of gaining eternal life. And if that were the case, we wouldn’t need to express thanks to God; we would have earned our own passage to heaven with no one to thank but ourselves. But we can’t achieve eternal life on our own; we can gain salvation only through God’s grace by faith in Jesus Christ. And this truth engenders a heart of thankfulness and praise. God’s amazing grace inspires us to express our deepest gratitude to our Lord and Savior.

When we freely offer God our thanks and praise, our lives change. As we count our many blessings, one by one, we may become overwhelmed by what God has done in our lives. We may also learn to trust Him for future needs as we review God’s perfect track record of taking care of us.

I encourage you to keep a spiritual journal, where you record your prayer requests and the Lord’s answers. The ancient Israelites often ran into problems because they didn’t remember all God had done for them in their past, such as parting the Red Sea to save them from Pharaoh and the Egyptians. But if you keep a prayer journal, you won’t suffer from the same “amnesia.” As you regularly write down God’s answers to your prayers, you’ll remember His wonderful care for you, and you’ll automatically be filled with gratefulness and adoration toward God.