Have you backslidden?

Have you backslidden?

It is a difficult thing to imagine for me, that anyone would drift back into the world and its ways. It is beyond my comprehension that a person could know the love of God and still find within their own heart a desire for the wretchedness of this world. Still it is without doubt that Israel was said to be backsliding no less than twelve times and their actions were clearly those of a backslider many more. How could they be called the people of God, have the temple of God given to them by divine revelation, and have the very Word of God entrusted to them as a nation and still fall away? 

That question has plagued me of late. Because Christians of today are in a more serious situation still. How is it that a born again child of God can backslide when he can hold the very Word of God in his hands, and have the Holy Spirit of God living within him and actually be called the temple of God’s Holy Spirit? Honestly, I do not have the answer to this. I only have the nagging question burning in my heart as I watch those who call themselves Christian walking hand in hand with the ungodly.

 I was talking with a friend the other day. He was perplexed by all the sadness and broken hearts he was seeing. How could Christians be so torn up, so devastated, when they had access to the one true and living God? How could they entertain the idea of going back to their sinful past? The only answer I could offer was that they were just like Israel, they had turned their backs on God, the only one who could possibly help. But isn’t it even worse for us? We are born again. We have God’s Holy Spirit within. We hear the Spirit of God speaking in our own hearts and we must make a conscious decision to silence Him. We must choose to stop listening to sermons, sermons which could help us and build us up in our faith. We must reject the friends of God and embrace the ungodly of this world in rebellion to God’s commands. We must willingly place the Bible, the actual Word of God, on a shelf and walk past it daily fighting the urge to read it again until the urge dissipates like a morning mist. How can anyone do such a thing? Whether we understand it or not people really do backslide. It is a real spiritual condition.

In America it is generally true that the church is backslidden. Most people in our churches today are backslidden. Maybe not yet to the point we described above. But we are fast closing the gap. However, the question for me is not about how much I can sin and still be saved, or how can I still walk with worldly friends and get away with it? For me the question is, “Why? Why would I turn away from God when He has chosen to live within my heart? Why would I choose to search for answers outside of His Word when it is His Word which holds the answers to life itself? Why would I walk away from the one who holds me in His very hand, the one who is my protection?” “Why? Why would I break fellowship with the only one who could ever help me with all of life’s problems?”

 I really do not know how anyone can walk away from God once they have known Him. Unless it is that some have only tasted of the gift of life and have never truly given their heart to God. Or maybe, it is that life (or Satan) has beaten down on them so cruelly before they were able to build a firm foundation that they slipped away. In either case Psalm 46:1 reminds us that, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” And He promises to receive us again, Isa. 44:22 “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.” In Revelation 3:20 Jesus is actually talking to the Church. He says to the lukewarm believers (they would be backsliders), “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” 

God is always willing to take us back no matter how far we stray. His loving arms are always open to the repentant cry of his children. When we turn away from Him He never turns away from us.

A heart of true repentance will always heal the backslider.

The verses cited are, Rom. 8:9; 1Cor. 6:19; 1John 5:16-17; John 10:28-30; Rev. 3:20 the full text was left out for brevity.