Confessions of a Restored Backslider – Part 1

Backsliding is a problem that all believers have faced at one time or another.  There is not one believer (at least not an honest one) I know of who cannot honestly stake claim to the title of “Restored Backslider.” All believers, no matter who you are, should be honest enough to confess that they have found themselves backslidden at one point or another in their Christian walk.  This problem called backsliding, is commonly defined as the returning to our past sinful behaviors or practices in lieu of fully trusting and following Christ is something that haunts every believer.  Once we have committed our lives to Christ we belong in full to Him.  Any variation that leads us away from Christ is Sin.  He saved us in our sin to deliver us from our sin, and backsliding is taking steps to return back to that sin.  It says in a sense that Jesus isn’t enough to satisfy your needs, it is a longing for something more in spite of Him, saying that Jesus is not enough. 

The truth is, we've all failed, we've all back slid, and we have all woken up in a place we did not want to return to, a place we thought that we would never return to.  We awake to an old familiar face in the mirror, one that is facing the day saddened by a return to a sinful state that we thought was finally past.  We stare in the mirror at a face that is now saddened by the loss of joy because of the burden that sin has now applied.  We find ourselves once again standing before God guilty and shameful because we have disgraced our God and Father. 

Questions begin to flood our heart and mind such as, “How did I get here so far and so fast?  How could this have happened?  How could I have gotten so far off track while worshipping and serving Him?  Emotions flood through your heart and mind as you stare at the face in the mirror but which do you address first?  Emotions such as remorse, anger, sadness, bitterness and disgust just to name a few, all of which scream out to be addressed, each wanting attention, none wanting to be released from the list.  It has always been a problem with the people and children of God.  “Why has this people slidden back, Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?  They hold fast to deceit, They refuse to return.” (Jeremiah 8:5 NKJV)

Why is it that so many believers, continue to toy with other gods when we have direct access to the one true God?  Why do we allow the idols of this world to fulfill that which only God Himself can fill?  We dabble with that which we shouldn’t, we listen to the music that the enemy plays and all too soon we are ensnared, we are uncontrollably dancing to the enemies tune, much like a marionettes puppet who dance is controlled by another. 

Another way to picture this is much like sailors found in the tales out of Greek mythology who would succumb to the call of the sirens and end up crashing their ships on the reef to their deaths.  In our lives today, we find that SIN’s call to us is much like that of the alluring call of the sirens in the mythological stories of the ancient Greeks and it is just as dangerous and potentially deadly.  In Greek mythology, sirens were beguiling sea nymphs that troubled sailors.  They would allure male sailors with their seductive voices and their enticing singing.  In many of the mythological texts it is found that that even if you knew better, the song of the sirens were still hard to resist.  In the Odyssey Book XII we find that Odysseus is warned about the dangers he was to face at sea and one of them being Sirens.  Odysseus did not have an Orpheus (Singer of charms) to drown out the lovely voices, so he orders his men to stuff their ears with wax and tie him to a mast.  In doing so the men could sail by in silence while he could hear their song.  The restraints that he had applied kept him from causing any danger to himself, his men or the ship.  It was said that the song of the sirens was so appealing that is hard to resist but that, if heeded,  he would do all that he could to follow their call even to the detriment of his ship and the other men’s lives as well.  So is the same to the call of SIN. 

 

Mythology offered one other escape from their call which was an Orpheus.  An Orpheus was one   whose singing was known to charm all living things.  We find in the adventure of Jason and the Argonauts, that Jason and his men faced the danger of sailing the seas where Sirens were known to be.  Jason and his men survived that passage, sailing safely by but only through the help of the singing of Orpheus.  Though we know that the stories of Jason and the Argonauts along with creatures such as sirens are a myth, we are quite aware of the enemy and the snares that he sets out before us.  As we sail through life and the siren’s calls of the enemy cries out to us there is one that we find today whose voice can over charm the soul and help us against the call to Sin and his name is Jesus.  If we listen to Him we can overcome many of the shipwrecks that sin leads us to; sadly and more often than most will admit we succumb to the call of sin.

All too often we find ourselves playing the part of Odysseus, we are back struggling with in the bondage of sin listening and longing to embrace its alluring seduction.  Life now finds us standing in front of the mirror, shipwrecked on the reef of sin and castaway into the sea being dragged down into the depths as only sin can take us.  Drawn away if you will by our own lusts (James 1:14, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”) Once enticed we find ourselves quickly separated from the God that we love and who completely loves us.  Standing alone, crying out for sins embrace, and at the same time hoping that those around us cannot hear the call to seduction.  As I mentioned before, backsliding has always been a problem with the people and children of God.  I do not believe that anyone is immune to this struggle with backsliding.