Backsliding is a term given to the process of turning away from God after conversion!
How did you lose your first love?
Which of the following would best answer the above question for you:
- Disobedience to God’s standards
- Failure to read God’s Word
- Failure to pray to God
- Failure to witness for God
- Ungratefulness to God
Check your answer!
“Disobedience”—Try as hard as we may, we still find ourselves disobeying God. But even if we obeyed God to the letter of the law, we could still not have that “first love” for the Lord. (Read Matthew 5:20)
“Bible Study”—As important as this is to our spiritual growth, we can study the Bible diligently and still lose that first love, even if we are studying it daily. (Read John 5:29)
“Prayer”—Reciting words, phrases and clichés as prayer is the first sign of the loss of our first love. We can pray correctly, and still not have that first love for Christ. (Read James 4:3)
“Witnessing”—It is possible to be used of God even when we know inside we are not right with God. (Read Galatians 6:4)
“Ungratefulness”—There are many other causes of losing that first love for God, including those above. But the one cause that is evidenced in Scripture time and time again in the lives of God’s people is ungratefulness, which says—“I don’t need God!”
This Bible study is designed to help you discover any area of ungratefulness in your relationship and fellowship with God. Use this study guide as a part of your daily Bible study. Read the suggested passage(s) first! Then go back and try to discover the answers to the statements.
Begin now by asking the Lord to work a miracle in your life. Confess your ungratefulness and tell God you are willing to repent of your sins, and to be restored to that right fellowship with Him, by His grace! Perhaps this prayer will help to express your personal thoughts:
“Heavenly Father, I ask You to forgive me for my ungratefulness to You
in taking my salvation for granted. I give you permission to use these daily
Bible studies to show me those areas of my life where I need to continue to
Confess my sin, so that You can restore unto me the joy of my salvation. In
Jesus name, Amen!”
I invite you back tomorrow for DAY ONE of “REDISCOVERING YOUR FIRST LOVE!”