Laodicea and Hebrews 4:1

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 

Who can make us fall short or take that promise away from us? Can Satan destroy us or make us forsake God? Can he defeat us against our will? 

John 10:28-29 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand.

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It would appear not to be so. So who then is our greatest enemy, the one who can separate us from God or make us fall short? It's ourselves. Us. We are the ones who make the choices in our lives. There are a lot of things that get chosen for us, but there is one thing that we will always be able to choose, and that is whether or not to follow God. 

Falling short is quite possibly the worst of the two options presented because if we fall short, that means we were trying! We were walking the walk and fighting the fight! We went out every day trying to do the best we knew how to live God's way, but we just didn't make it. We lost our reward. What happened? How could we let this happen? Complacency. We allowed ourselves to get comfortable, and even though we thought we were doing the best we knew how, somewhere, we started to slack off. Then the next wedge between God and us showed up, the one that always follows swiftly on the heels of complacency. Distractions. Wait… Don't distractions cause complacency? No. You can't distract a dedicated warrior. When we are dedicated to the task at hand, it's nearly impossible for anything to distract us. 

Distractions need us complacent. Comfortable. The Navy Seals have a saying, "The only easy day was yesterday." Staying dedicated is hard. It's really easy to become complacent when there are no apparent threats wandering around, but complacency is our enemy. We must stay on task with workouts, training, and quality time with our commander and our fellow warriors through prayer, bible study, and biblical discussion. We have to choose hardship in order to stay sharp. An unused knife becomes rusty. One of the letters of Revelation was written to just such a church. They had become complacent, lukewarm. If you put stock in church eras, they would be our era today. We in the Church of God have a very real tendency towards lukewarmness. Everything is pretty easy and comfortable right now. There is certainly persecution on the horizon, but many of us will fall away when it hits. We’ve had it too easy for too long. No pressure, no diamonds. Still, if someone demands that we stop worshipping God and meeting on the Sabbath, it's pretty easy for most of us to rise to the challenge and defy it. It's a lot harder to recognize the subtle attacks from Satan. Remember, he can't defeat us unless we defeat ourselves. 

He can't defeat us unless we defeat ourselves. 

Satan is just waiting for us to let down our guard to send his distractions marching in, isn’t he? Not quite. His distractions are constantly present; they just aren't effective until we lose focus. Remember what happened to Peter with walking on water? He was doing it! Until he lost his dedication and allowed the sea and storm around him to distract him from Christ. That is how we fall short of our reward. When we are so close, we allow ourselves to become complacent, opening ourselves to distractions. We avoid this by not allowing ourselves to become complacent in the first place. How can we accomplish this?

Col 3:1-3 1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 

Rom 12:1-2 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what [is] that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

There are a lot of cares and worries in this world, and the only way to avoid being distracted by them is to keep our focus and dedication on God. Whether our worry is food, clothing, getting married, our health, or a house, God will meet our needs if we "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to us. Mat 6:33 

God knows what we need before we even ask. If we focus on those things, we will lose sight of what truly matters. He is the master of the universe! He will supply our every need if we seek Him first and keep our focus on Him. If our focus is on Him and we are serving Him with all of our heart, there is nothing to fear in heaven or on earth. Not death, not life, not Satan, and certainly not other people. When it's God's will for us to die, we will die, and not a moment sooner or later. Nothing we do will prevent it from happening. We don't have to fear it! 

What's with bringing up fear all of a sudden? I thought we were talking about falling short of our goal. The two subjects are deeply connected. In the past few years, we have seen firsthand what happens when people are ruled by fear rather than reason and, even worse, when fear is their god or when it drives people to the false savior, men. Guess what they lose when their minds are ruled by fear rather than by reason and logic? God. They lose sight of God. Just like fear distracted Peter, fear still distracts us from following God today. 

2Ti 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

This may sound like an often sung trope, but it is deadly serious. We only get one shot at this; let's not let fear or anything else distract us from God. 

Where is your focus? 

Only you can answer this. Are you imprisoned by fear? Christ freed us from fear when He gave His life for us. We now have literally nothing left to fear except God Himself. Let's not fall short of our reward. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to be sure of your calling and election. For by doing this you will never stumble into sin. and you will not fall short of your reward. 2 Peter 1:10