Read Jeremiah 3:22
"Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding." "Yes, we will come to you, for you are the LORD our God.
Backsliding
comes in various degrees in the Christian faith. No one becomes a backslider
over night and it is much more than being up and down in our Christian walk. It
is rather a refusal to do God's will that causes us to backslide. It is a
process that we go through as our spiritual life with Him decline because it
remains unattended by us. Backsliding is brought on by a spirit of disobedience
to Him and the effect of our refusal to obey His Word will always cause our
conscience to start slipping away. Slowly, the Word of God has no effect on us
anymore. Next to our conscience, our heart becomes harder and harder to remain
devoted to Him. By then, you do not have the strength to bother and soon you
feel as if you are enjoying the illusion of freedom not having to focus so much
on your life with Him. It gets worse when you realize how much strength, focus
and commitment it takes to live out the Christian life. In your mind you might
even start rationalizing it that you are simply taking a break from it all. Oddly,
your body starts feeling like you are on a mini vacation that you would not want
to come to an end.
Through the
process of backsliding, the Holy Spirit warns us and brings various
opportunities for us to grab onto Him, to stop the sloppy slide path we are on
and turn away from it. At first, when we start backsliding we can see it so
clearly that we are leaving behind the life we used to know. The intimacy, the
oneness that used to be so sweet to the soul, the learning process, the
tenderness of the conscience, the joy and rest we used to have etc. We feel almost helpless, anxious and sad as we
watch it all slipping away like water escaping through our fingers. As this is
happening, you start looking at God like a distant memory as your desire to be
devoted to Him is also fading away. Not only the strength to go back is not
there, but we get discouraged before we even start since we realize how much
effort we are going to need to get out of the backsliding mode. Before long, it
feels as if not only we do not have brakes to stop but we are helpless in the
process because inside, it feels like there is nothing to grab on to stop the
declining process. By the time we get there, we are way too far in the
backsliding process. The Holy Spirit has stopped pursuing us.
While you are
backsliding you might even enjoy going through the motion of Church and
socializing with other Christians, like you would attend a social club. Some of
us still go to Church because we care what other people think. Nevertheless,
deep in your heart, you are aware that all your values, priorities characters
and everything else the Holy Spirit has worked hard to accomplish in you
inwardly, are shifting back. This is a scary and dangerous place to be and
anyone who can see it coming should not stop begging the Holy Spirit for help
to have the heart revive. God does not let backsliding unpunished because it is
a state that put us in the same wavelength as the unbelievers as we learn to
live in appreciation of our own wickedness. When we reject and forsake our God, the only next step
we have is to turn our hearts to new idols, simply because the void has to be
filled. If not filled with God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, then the next choice
is obviously worldly things. In these days, idols for us Christians are no
different from the unbelievers. We “walk” the Christian walk while being
consumed by the needs and care of this world. One of the biggest barriers to
coming back to God is that we are really good at making ourselves feel that God
will understand even though we are unhappy inside.
Beloved, being in a backsliding mode is like being
aboard a derailed train with no driver on board.
