Backward

Have you not brought this on yourself by abandoning the Lord your God while he was leading you along the way? —Jeremiah 2:17

There is a word that was once common in evangelical circles: backslider. It describes a person who appeared to have a conversion experience but later returned to former ways. Sometimes the reversal may even call the genuineness of their faith into question.

Whether backslider makes its way back into common vocabulary is unimportant, but what it describes matters a great deal. For some, eternity could be at stake. At the very least the backslidden are saints living like sinners. At worst, they are living in self-deception and utter lostness.

This is not to say that lingering struggle with sin can “unsave” us, but we can certainly experience the loss of joy and purpose that come through faith in Christ. We can be sure that whatever the world, our flesh, and the devil himself may entice us to return to is not worth comparing with “the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).

Backsliding only takes us backward.

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Incomparable: 50 Days with Jesus © 2024 by Revived Hearts Foundation

Scripture taken from The CSB