I don’t hear much about the danger of “backsliding” these days. It
seems that was something my friends and I were concerned about 20 years
ago. We talked about it, prayed against it, and sought to keep Jesus
always before us as our greatest hope and satisfaction. It wasn’t like
we were about to fall right off the spiritual map by denying Jesus and
jumping into scandalous sin, but we knew that we do in fact have hearts
that are, as the hymn says, “prone to wander.” And I am no better today.
If there is one consideration more humbling than another to a spiritually-minded believer, it is, after all God has done for him,–after all the rich displays of his grace, the patience and tenderness of his instructions, the repeated discipline of his covenant, the tokens of love received, and the lessons of experience learned, there should still exist in the heart a principle, the tendency which is to secret, perpetual, and alarming departure from God.
- Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension‘
But even if we acknowledge that we remain sinners and can find
ourselves in a dangerous spiritual state, do we know what such a state
really looks like? I’m not so sure. Some liken it to big public failure,
and this leaves them thinking they are safe when in fact they may be in
a very bad way. In the classic Vital Godliness, William Plumer
said, “Many are kept from owning their backslidings, because they are
mercifully restrained from open sins. Had they publicly fallen into
overt iniquity, they would blush, and be ashamed; they would bewail
their wickedness before God and men. But as yet all is secret. They are
merely backsliders in heart.”
What Does Backsliding Look Like?
In his book, Revival, Richard Owen Robert lays 25 evidences of a backslidden condition. He expounds on each, but I’ll just give you the points here. Consider them seriously.
1. When prayer ceases to be a vital part of a professing Christian’s life, backsliding is present.
2. When the quest for biblical truth ceases and one grows
content with the knowledge of eternal things already acquired, there can
be no mistaking the presence of backsliding. Continue at Joe Thorn
No comments:
Post a Comment