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Rediscovering Your First Love!

DAY FIFTEEN—“Remember therefore from where you have fallen.”

Posted on by Wayne Edwards

Inspiration—Backsliding

Backsliding is “falling away” from a total trust in God’s Word as the final authority in all matters of faith and life.  Individuals, families, churches, communities—even nations can backslide from their original commitment to the Word of God as their source of truth.

Now that you have relived that “first love” experience and you are now open to God’s reproof, let’s discern that very experience or instance where you first began to doubt the accuracy or authority of God’s Word.

Read the following passages to find what they have to do with “backsliding”:

  1. 1 Kings 11:9—the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned form the Lord, God of Israel.
  2. Psalm 125:1-5—The writer of this Psalm says that for those who “turn aside unto their crooked ways”, God would lead them away with the workers of iniquity.
  3. 1 Timothy 5:1-16—Paul told Timothy to keep the members of the church involved in proper priorities, and to teach them to mind their own business, “for some had already turned to Satan!” (verse 15)
  4. 2 Timothy 4:10—Paul was forsaken by Demas because of his love of this present
  5. 1 Corinthians 10:1-13—recounts the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness when they rebelled against Moses and against God. Paul said, as a result of this backsliding, (vs 8-9) at least 23,000 were destroyed (killed).
  6. Galatians 3:1-5—Paul said the Christians at Galatia had “begun in the Spirit” but were now trying to be made perfect by their obedience to the law.

Application—Repent

  1. When do you think you first turned from God and pursued your own way?
  2. What was the “evil” that led you astray?
    • Were you aware of Satan’s power in your life?
    • Did you desire the things of this world more than Jesus Christ?
    • Did you ever think you were actually “tempting Christ?
    • Did you think you could be a Christian and still do the things only unbelievers do?

Application—Return

  1. Confess that you have, at times, or even to this point in your life, forsaken God and pursued other “gods”—that you (loved or love) this present world more than Him!
  2. Read David’s confession in Psalm 51, and in your own words write out your confession as he did his.
  3. Look up the specific sin that led you astray, and then find a passage of Scripture to defeat it (“adultery”—“Thou shalt not commit adultery!”)
  4. Write out those temptations that you consider being a threat to your commitment to Christ—(see Galatians 5:11-26), Colossians 3:1-25, Romans 8:1-16) Search the Scriptures for the passage of Scripture that you can QUOTE to defeat that temptation Write it out on a 3X5 card and begin memorizing them so you can quote them to Satan when he tempts you again.

I invite you back tomorrow for DAY SIXTEEN of “REDISCOVERING YOUR FIRST LOVE!”