by Jacob Ninan
Many people seem to think that backsliding is the same as falling away from the faith, where someone leaves Christ and goes back to his old sinful life. As a result, they assume that they are in no danger of backsliding. But backsliding is the process that begins in a small way and may lead ultimately to falling away. It is like a ship starting off towards a distant destination with a course that is just one degree off, which will land it far from where it wanted to go. The deviation is not obvious in the beginning, but in the end it will become very obvious that it has gone totally off course. Backsliding begins in our mind, as a small drifting of our interest away from God, and it may become obvious to others only after we have gone thoroughly astray. So it becomes very important for us to detect the start of backsliding and get back to the Lord, and prevent a serious calamity.
An ancient hymn called 'Come, Thou font of every blessing' says, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love." This is a tendency all of us have, because we carry with us a flesh with its lusts and desires, because of which we are constantly being attracted towards the world and sinful pleasures. We will be deceiving ourselves if we imagine we have no such danger. We will then make ourselves easy prey to the Devil.
"But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" (2Cor.11:3). It is in our mind that temptation comes at first, and if we agree with it, it will begin to influence our heart and the direction of our life itself. We have to learn to detect the pull in the mind, and protect ourselves from going astray. This verse talks about being simple and pure in our devotion to Christ. Instead of being simple in our love for the Lord where we love Him and simply do whatever He tells us, we can make things complicated by associating it with rituals and practices such as Bible reading, prayer, Christian service, etc. The danger is that even when our devotion to the Lord has become cold, these activities may be going on, giving us and others an impression that everything is fine with us! The purity of our devotion refers to having nothing else in our heart that competes with God for attention. We should recognise it when Jesus is no longer the treasure or the pearl of greatest value in our heart. When Jesus spoke to the messenger of the church in Ephesus, He was sad that he had left his first love for Him, even though he was very zealous in many external things in the church (Rev.2:4). No amount of 'service' can compensate for a cooling down of our heart towards God.
If backsliding has begun in our heart, let us not comfort ourselves thinking that no one has noticed anything, because Jesus has certainly noticed it and is feeling grieved for that.
There are many things that can cause us to start backsliding from God in our heart. I give here a list of ten, and you may be able to add to it.
1. Love of money
It is a sad thing that when we ask young people these days what they want to do in life, many of them say they want to make money! They seem to think that if they had money they would be able to take care of everything else and do whatever they want to enjoy themselves. But God says very clearly that those who long for money will start wandering from the faith and finally get badly hurt in their lives (1Tim.6:10). Even though Jesus said categorically that no one would be able to love God and money at the same time, some people imagine that they can manage (Matt.6:24)! But they will find, just as Jesus warned, that if we long for money we will soon begin to compromise with God. People tell lies, sign false statements, cheat people and even kill for money.2. Going after pleasure
Solomon, the greatest and wealthiest king of Israel, thought that because he had enough wealth to spend, he would explore different kinds of pleasure and see where they would take him. But after trying the pleasure of enjoying different cuisines, sex (with hundreds of wives), music, entertainment, construction projects, etc., he finally came to realise that all these things still left him empty (Eccl.2:1). Seeking for pleasure is one of the characteristics of the end days, as we are warned in 1Tim.3. Of course, we need some amounts of relaxation, entertainment and fun, but if we allow that to turn the focus away from God, then we will be in great danger.3. Ambition
Many are driven with ambition to make themselves great in this world. They do not realise that the more emphasis they place on achieving it, the less focus they will have on following God. They also do not realise that whatever fame they achieve will only last for a short while here on earth, whereas they will be forfeiting the eternal riches they could have had for eternity. Girls who want to get a name as models or actresses do not realise that when age catches up with them they will no longer in demand. Cricketers and athletes also discover this afterwards. The greatest loss will be that this pursuit of greatness robbed them of the relationship they could have developed with God, which they will regret all through eternity! For Jesus, His ambition was just to give pleasure to His Father by doing whatever He wanted Him to do (Isa.53:10).4. Disappointment with God
One common cause of backsliding is when we do not get the answers to some of our prayers. Preachers may have led us to believe that when we come to Jesus we can get whatever we ask for, (without finding about the will of God). The disappointment can be a trigger to turn us slowly away from God. Some others turn away from God when they are not able to figure out why there is so much of evil and injustice in the world when God is supposed to be almighty and loving. What they do not realise is that God has all the answers and that they are trying to find answers with their own small heads. There are things God has revealed to us which we need to know for our life here on earth, and there are other things which He has kept as secrets from us because He does not think we need to know them now (Deut.29:29). What we need to do is to trust God concerning those 'secrets'.5. Some sin which we enjoy
There may be certain sinful things we may have been involved in before we came to the Lord, such as drinking parties, porn, unhealthy friendships, etc,. which we may not be willing to give up even now. These things become a hindrance for us to have a proper relationship with the Lord and will draw us away from Him. If we take the position that we want God but we are not willing to give up things that are displeasing to Him, ultimately we will turn away from God.6. Unwilling to deny ourselves
One of the characteristics of the end times that God warns us about in 1Tim.3 is that people will be lovers of self. We see around us now how people are insisting on having their own way, and calling their personal rights as something no one else can meddle with. Those who have come to Christ but who still insist of doing whatever they want, without submitting to God, will also fall away from Him. We can see those who choose what they will accept from the word of God and have the audacity to reject other parts which they say they cannot agree with!7. Wanting to walk by sight
When we walk by faith in God, we trust in God knowing His character even when there are things we cannot understand. But if we will only accept only what we can see with our eyes or experience, we cannot walk by faith. Such people always ask for 'proof' or 'evidence' and are unwilling to accept anything they cannot understand or explain. The Pharisees in the days of Jesus had seen enough miracles from Jesus that should have convinced them about who He was, but they still asked for signs. This kind of approach will also turn people away from God.8. Taking liberties with sin
Some people, after years of denying themselves in seeking to obey God, become weary, and think that they deserve some kind of 'fun' also! They tell themselves they deserve to have some pleasure after 'suffering' for that much time, and begin to go easy with their values. But we must not forget that every indulgence we take will bring us corruption, and we will miss the pleasures that only God can give if we endure (Gal.6:7-9).9. Curiosity for knowledge
Sometimes, after having heard heard much preaching on the word of God and become familiar with the doctrines, people become curious about what other religions and philosophies have to say. There is a mature way to do this if Christians who have a strong foundation of faith and a personal relationship with God try to learn such things in order to help others. But those who are merely looking around out of curiosity can be led astray or become confused. Cult teachers and religious debaters have been trained to mislead ignorant people and if we are not grounded in the truth we can become convinced by their arguments. Solomon had begun well with the Lord in his young days, but later he went into philosophies and other religions became confused (Eccl.1:13,14), and finally went after other gods under the influence of his wives.10. Looking for thrills
This is another attraction which draws people who have more than enough money to spend, to explore new ways of enjoyment. Some get into travelling to exotic places, some go after tasting cuisines of different varieties, some go after adventure sports of various types, etc., always wanting to do things they have never done before. When this becomes a passion in their lives, they soon have no time for God. It is not that such things are sinful in themselves, but when they go beyond limits and come to occupy our mind, they too tend to make us backslide from God.Only a small deviation is necessary in the beginning to turn our heart and mind from God, and we may recognise we have strayed away from God only after some serious consequences. But we can understand that the damage we have caused to our relationship with God and the eternal loss we have suffered in the meantime cannot be regained. That is why we need to be alert at all times to watch out for signs of backsliding.
Our spiritual life can be like rowing up the river in a boat against the current. If we stop paddling, soon our momentum will be gone, and after that we will start drifting down the river along with the current. The only way to reach our destination and to prevent this backsliding is to keep rowing forward. In biblical terms, this means that we must take up our cross daily, deny ourselves and follow Jesus (Lk.9:23).