The Lies & Shame Of Backsliding

Jeremiah 2:21-24

“I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine? Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Sovereign Lord. How can you say, I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals? See how you behaved in the valley consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving—in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her."

The Israelites were lavished by God with the highest privileges. But instead of worship the God who loved and honored them by making them His choice over all the other nations, they became the worst idolaters that existed in their time. They were corrupted to the core and had become useless to God. When we read those verses we see the depth of their denial and the madness of backsliding motion. They left Him, completely disobeyed His Word at all levels and all the facts were against them. They had the audacity to deny who they truly were in the presence of God. They pretended that all their sins of idolatry were not so, and if anything, God is the one who misunderstood.

Isn’t like most of us Christians today? We sin as if God was dead or blind and deaf. We are devoid of reverence for Him. We do not love Him to care enough to become rooted and grounded in the faith. We try to fool Him with ritual and entrench ourselves in service, for His benefits. The worse part of our madness is that true repentance evades us. Most of us are in complete denial of who we truly are when it comes to being Christians. Yet, our actions show what is in our heart which is the incessant need to cover up who we truly are.  

If we were true to the faith, and knew how to examine ourselves, we would know and see with our spiritual eyes. The fact that we need to cover up who we truly are and the fact that we still need to wear masks to deal with day to day life and our interactions with other people, should be an indication of how much we need Him and how far we are from being true Christians. There are some of us calling ourselves Christians, yet we upstage Pharaoh with his hardened heart. Sadly, like the Israelites, sin is eating us alive like we have leprosy, yet we have the audacity to make the same claim they made in verse 23 "I am not defiled; I have not gone after other gods.”

How sad? How pathetic to reach such a low state where we think we can convince God otherwise and that He will not be wiser?

PRAYER: Lord, like the Israelites, we messed up really bad. We are running like sheep with no pastures to rest and no shepherd. Lord, pride, blindness, ignorance, and the lust in our hearts are too much to bear. Day in day out, we are committing spiritual suicide with no regards for you. We have reached a point of no return. Please shake us up, do what needs to be done to get us out of that frame of mind, and out of our lethargy. Help us face who we truly are so we can stop the backsliding mode that we are in. Give us eyes to see and hearts to repent my Lord. 

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