Home  Articles  Site map

We hear of radical conversions – maybe we have had one ourselves – or about the way some churches are exploding in size, and we may be happy to know that more people are coming to Christ. But if we look at church history, or watch enough number of people who came to faith, it will strike us as a tragic fact that many of them faded away. Many of them have not totally disappeared from the scene altogether, but they have become over time churches or Christians only in form and profession. A good start is not the same as a good finish. There are many things at work pulling us back from God.

Jesus was fully aware of this possibility. He said, 'Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity' (Lk.8:13,14). This tendency is in our flesh. Jesus is not referring to any fault in the preaching, but how different people responded from their hearts. Another problem we face is that the Devil is always on the lookout to drag people back from God to his kingdom (1Pe.5:8). All the attractions of this world, which seem more tangible to us than the things of God, also entice us away from God (1Jn.2:16). With all the zeal of a new convert or a new church movement, if we don't recognise the weakness of our flesh, we will not survive (Mt.26:41). We can also see that the second generation invariably becomes more casual about God than their 'parents'.

Therefore God warns us not to take our faith for granted, but to watch over it constantly lest it degenerates into unbelief given enough time (He.3:12). We must take a warning from the parable of the ten virgins – all of them believed in the bridegroom, they were all waiting for the bridegroom, and all grew sleepy with waiting. The wise virgins were ready for the delay with extra oil in their lamps. In other words, they took extra effort to store up oil, hoping not to get caught unprepared.

What happens when Christians think that they have started well – believed, baptised, in a good church, reading the Bible and going for prayer meetings – but do not think that they need to put in extra effort to fight in their spiritual battles? The enemy's arrows catch them unawares. An unexpected calamity, a tough intellectual question, or an unanswered prayer is enough to trip them. Perhaps some supposedly great scholar comes up and gives them a different explanation from the Bible and they are thrown out of their track! Isn't this happening all around us? Perhaps we ourselves have faced such situations and almost gave up our faith!

'If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world' (Jn.11:9). Let us walk before God with real humility and honesty!

Tweet