Are You Backsliding?

"Men fall in private long before they fall in public."

JC Ryle

Are you backsliding?

Only you know the honest answer to this.

Maybe there have been signs. 

Maybe you have been compromising.

Maybe you have been making excuses for it. 

Or maybe you are in denial.

But either way, you know that it is there. 



"The causes of backsliding are many. We have pretended to be living a more devoted life than was actually the case; we neglected to watch unto prayer; we allowed secret sin to eat out the heart of our piety...or we yielded to temptation..or we yielded to the fear of man, and drifted with the multitude to do evil; or we became prosperous, and trusted only in our wealth; or poor, and succumbed to covetousness and the bitterness of despair." ~F.B. Meyer

Don't turn a blind eye to it--but be sober-minded.

And the way we become sober-minded about backsliding is coming face to face with God's Word.

So today I am sharing some very important Bible verses on this topic that we all need to be reminded of.

Because none of us are safe from it and anyone can fall. 

But the good news is that God's Word picks us back up and gets us back on track!

"If you begin to slip on the side of a mountain of ice, the first slip may not hurt if you can stop and slide no further. But alas, you cannot so regulate sin! When your feet begin to slide, the rate of the descent increases, and the difficulty of arresting this motion is incessantly becoming greater. It is dangerous to backslide in any degree, for we know not to what it may lead. The Christian life is very much like climbing a hill of ice. You cannot slide up. You have to cut every step with an ice ax. Only with incessant labor in cutting and chipping can you make any progress. If you want to know how to backslide, leave off going forward, cease going upward and you will go downward of necessity. You can never stand still."  ~ Charles Spurgeon


So here they are---I hope you are encouraged:

"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children." Deuteronomy 4:9

"The law of his God is in his heart: his steps do not slip." Psalm 37:31

"He will not let your foot slip—He who watches over you will not slumber." Psalm 121:3

"For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:38

"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." John 15:4

"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love." John 15:4-10

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel." Galatians 1:6

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Timothy 6:10

"If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us;

13 if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself." 2 Timothy 2:12-3

"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,  but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries..."but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” Hebrews 10:26-7, 38

"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled..." Hebrews 12:15

 "For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them." 2 Peter 2:20-21

"Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father." John 2:24