Are You Backsliding?

Are your standards of holiness becoming lower? This will be reflected by your permitting things in your life that would have been unthinkable when you were on fire and your ability to engage in certain activities, watch certain movies, enjoy certain forms of entertainment, attend certain functions, etc., which the Lord at one time convicted you of – but now there is no conviction!

Beware! This type of backsliding is often done in the name of spiritual maturity. It is a trap and a lie! Absence of divine conviction does not mean absence of divine displeasure. It may actually point to a withdrawing of His presence. 

In fact, if the Holy Spirit is dealing with you even now, cry out to Him for restoring grace right where you are. Do not harden your heart against your Lord, your King, and your Friend. It is spiritual suicide. The fact that something doesn’t “bother you” may be the loudest warning you will ever hear.

Can you sin freely without feeling grief? Then fall on your face and cry for mercy before it’s too late. Otherwise you might disqualify yourself from receiving the prize. Do not be deceived: You are not experiencing the freedom that comes as a result of trust; you are experiencing the insensitivity that comes from hardness.

Have you actually deceived yourself by giving yourself a license for sin in the name of “liberty”? Have you despised the precious closeness you once enjoyed with Jesus by calling it “legalism”? Run back into His presence -- with all the discipline and devotion that demands -- while His arms are still open wide. Where godly sorrow is found, abundant grace is also found.