Message: In Hebrews 6 the author had just come out of his frustration at the end of chapter over their lack of maturity. Not because they were newbies, but because they had been in the faith for a while and had not shown any signs of growth. He wanted to communicate some deeper things to them but he was discerning that they weren’t ready for it. He elaborated on this in chapter 6 when he called them to a higher level of maturity by stopping the repeat cycle of salvation. I’ve seen this in people before who receive salvation and follow for a bit and then drift off. They feel guilty so they “get saved again” and continuously repeat the process because they never build the discipline of reading the word and surrendering themselves so that God can change them. They know enough to feel guilty, but they never move past this level. From the outside looking in it appears they are being driven by their emotions. Their salvation is an emotional experience but after that initial joy and excitement wears off they are unable to maintain the connection so they drift until something startles them back to salvation. We see the same patterns in people who constantly jump through relationships. They ride the emotional high of emotions from one relationship to another and they can’t seem to develop intimacy with anyone because they aren’t willing to stay plugged in long enough to work through the less exciting emotions. They don’t stay in it long enough to experience the reward of going through something together and developing closeness and trust through it. As I read this my heart is sad for the people who feel disconnected. Just like we have to become vulnerable in relationships with people to build trust and intimacy, we have to become even more vulnerable with God. Surrender is hard but it is absolutely necessary to grow and build. The difference is that we are safe being vulnerable with God. He will never reject us. When we go through things he promises to be with us. So why then are we so afraid to surrender to him? Because we also know that his ways are higher than ours. He won’t cater to our sinful and fleshly desires and he won’t enable us. Surrendering to him means that we will be pulled and challenged. It’s impossible to fully surrender to him without growing.
