Jeremiah 49:4
“Why do you boast in the valleys, Your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? Who trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come against me?’”

Some things never change. The sun will always rise in the East and set in the West, water will always be wet, and a person in a backslidden state will always deceive themselves, about their spiritual condition. This was true 2600 years ago in Ammon, and it is true today.

When we drift from the Lord, we develop a skewed perspective about our spiritual condition and the reasons for it. There are a number of pretty common deceptions that keep a person from turning back to the Lord.

It is not uncommon for a person, who has backslidden, to have a list of excuses for their sin. They might have an elaborate story about how another Christian, or the church in general, let them down or treated them badly. In reality, by doing this, they are simply blaming their actions on someone else. This did not work for Adam in the garden, and it will not work today. Sometimes, the first step to getting things right with God, is taking ownership for what we are doing wrong.

Another common deception is thinking we have gone too far and God is no longer interested in us. I have even known backslidden believers to quote obscure verses out of context, convincing them it is too late for them. Keep in mind, the entire underlining message of the Bible is that God is in the business of bringing wanderers back to Himself. You may have made some big mistakes and gotten way off track, but the Cross provides forgiveness for that, and the Lord is waiting to restore you to Himself.

It is also typical for backsliders to think they have time to put off getting things right with God. We often realize we are not where we should be, and we have intentions of returning to the Lord, but we think it is something we will do later. Either we are enjoying our backslidden state, or we are not willing to do the work necessary to return to Christ.

The thing we are forgetting is, the longer we stay in our condition, the deeper our roots go, and the more difficult repentance becomes. Don’t put off repentance for another day. Keep in mind, that while the trip may seem far, it is really as simple as turning to God, and recommitting yourself to Him.

Pastor Jim