The shift is subtle at first—like a slow leak in your tire. You’re still traveling forward, but you start noticing bumps, irregularities in the ride. Before long you realize you’ve lost your grip—you’ve drifted off course. That’s how Solomon lost his heart for God. His story serves as a cautionary tale of how a heart can slowly drift away.
What started as small compromises grew into bigger ones. Decisions made for political expediency chipped away at his spiritual foundation. Before he knew it, Solomon had loosened his grip on God’s Word and drifted into alliances that pulled him into sin. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With vigilance and spiritual habits, we can guard our hearts from that slow slide.
- Solomon slowly lost his heart for God through small compromises and drift over time. It was not one major event that turned his heart away, but a gradual process.
- Solomon minimized God’s Word and commands. He treated God’s expectations as suggestions rather than directives. This led his heart to turn away from God.
- Solomon elevated human wisdom over God’s Word. His political and geopolitical decisions made sense in a worldly sense, but went against what God had commanded.
- Solomon formed unholy alliances that encouraged him to sin and compromise his faith. His many marriages to foreign wives pulled him away from God.
- To avoid drifting from God, we must guard our hearts. This includes paying attention to “dashboard warning lights” that indicate our hearts are in danger, and cultivating spiritual habits and disciplines that strengthen our hearts.
A life fully alive in Christ requires constant vigilance—guiding our passions, priorities and relationships in line with God’s Word. The alternative is a heart that drifts, slowly losing its grip on eternal things. But through spiritual disciplines and community, we can shore up our weary souls. We can take hold once again of the only life that lasts. And we can cross the finish line, hearts still burning bright for the One who loved us first.
We should run the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Because a life gripped by His love is the only life that truly lives.