It was a 50cc red moped (a small motorbike) and my pride and joy! I had a red helmet to go with it. Boy I looked good! That was until one particular day approaching the drive of my home where I lived with my parents I took my eye off what was in front of me and viewed my surroundings. Three girls had turned the corner and was walking down the hill. I can’t even remember if they were particularly worth looking at but they were enough for me to take my eyes off the fact I was heading towards the garden wall and not the drive. Motorbikes don’t go through walls. What they do is they crash into them with such a force that the rider who was previously holding the handlebars fly into the air and with a somersault land on their back brutally dazed in the garden! I was 17yrs of age and 40 years later I still have not got back onto ride a motorbike though I have been a pillion passenger a few times. The experience caused me to lose my confidence in actually being a sole rider.
In the last few sentences of Peter’s letter he warns his people that if they are not careful, if they do not pay attention to what he has been telling them then they will lose their confidence.
“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.” (2 Peter 3 v 17)
Peter is not saying we can lose our salvation. But he is saying we can lose our confidence. That position where you feel secure to share your faith, to pray for someone for their healing, to use the gifts God has given you. The list goes on.
He is saying if we do not take Scripture seriously and apply it to our lives then everyone of us can lose our confidence in who God says we are. The security of our position which God has declared over our lives, for example, the assurance that we are saved, can be lost.
Everyone of us can take our eyes off the road and become distracted by many things. We become too casual and we no longer stay alert to the dangers around us.
So ‘be on your guard’!
Missions Paul 