Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Competing Passions


By Uvoh Onoriobe
Charlotte, North Carolina
June 17, 2009

I have followed with keen interest the discussion that has arisen from my plea to God to “Take Me Back”. I want to give Him thanks that he heard my cry and I am revived.

Plainly put ‘Love Waxing Cold’ is BACKSLIDING. I found an article by Diane Dew that did justice to the matter. I want to believe God is calling members of this forum to pray. To lift each other up that His coming will not take any of us by surprise. Be blessed by this!

I. THE MEANING OF THE WORD.

In Scripture, the term "backslide" is used to describe the stubbornness of Israel: as back- sliding children (Jer 3:22), a backsliding daughter (Jer 31:22), and as a backsliding heifer (Hos 4:16).
The word "backslide" literally means "turn back" or "turn away."
A. Turning from God. 1 Ki 11:9
B. Turning from our first love. Revel 2:4
C. Turning from the gospel. Gal 1:6, 7; 3:1-5
D. Turning to Satan. 1 Tim 5:15
E. Turning to evil. Psa 125:5
F. Turning to the world. 2 Tim 4:10
G. Turning aside, off-course, "like a deceitful bow." Jer 14:7

II. THE CAUSES OF BACKSLIDING.

A. BAD RELATIONSHIPS.
Hos 4:17

1. Marriage to the ungodly. Josh 23:12, 13; 1 Ki 11:4
2. Bad friendships. 1 Corin 15:33 1 Pet 4:2-4
3. Lack of fellowship; isolation. Heb 3:12, 13; 10:25
4. Sexual defraudation in marriage. 1 Corin 7:5
5. Divisions, arguments. Mat 18:35 1 Tim 6:20, 21; 2 Corin 12:20, 21
6. Jealousy, envy, hatred. Mat 5:23, 24 Gal 5:15 Heb 2:15
7. Adultery. Prov 29:3; Jas 4:4

B. SPIRITUAL LACK.

1. Heresy, philosophy. Acts 20:30; 2 Corin 11:4; Gal 1:6-9; 3:1; 4:9-11; 5:7-10
2. Inadequate teaching; poor foundation. Hos 4:6;1 Corin 3:1-3
3. Poor (or no) leadership -- or an over-dependence upon it. Ex 32:1-6; Jdg 2:19
4. Neglect of prayer life. Zeph 1:6; Mk 14:37-41;
5. Spiritual apathy. Prov 6:10; 24:33; 10:5; 19:15; Isa 51:17; 56:10
6. Spiritual blindness. 2 Pet 1:9; ev 3:17
7. Deliberate disobedience. Mat 7:26, 27 1 Jn 2:4
8. Unbelief. Psa 106:24; Jas 1:6-8

C. COMPROMISE WITH THE WORLD. Prov 26:11 2 Ki 17:15; Amos 3:3

1. Competing interests: compromise. 2 Ki 17:33, 41; Psa 106:34, 35; Jer 2:31, 32
2. Ingratitude; independence from God. Deut 8:10-14; Psa 107
3. Spiritual adultery; idolatry. Hos 2:13

III. SAFEGUARDS AGAINST BACK-SLIDNG.

A. Prayer. Mk 14:38; Lk 22:46; 1 Corin 10:12; Eph 6:18; 1 Pet 5:8, 9; Jude 20, 21
B. The Word of God. Mat 8:24, 25; Lk 4:4, 8; Eph 6:17
C. The prayers of others. Luke 22:31
D. Diligence to spiritual things. Heb 6:11; 2 Pe 1:5-7, 10
E. Walking in the Spirit. Gal 5:16; Lk 4:1-14
F. Abstinence. 1 Pe 2:11; Jas 1:27
G. Godly living. Rom 6:19-22; 2 Pe 1:7, 8
H. Self-examination (good, to a degree). Deut 4:9; 2 Corin 13:5
I. Submission to the discipline of the Lord. Heb 12:8
J. Good preaching. 1 Corin 15:2
K. Exhortation of other believers. Heb 10:25; 1 Tim 4:6

IV. THE CALL TO RETURN.

Jer 3:22 "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings..."
A. God loves the backslider and promises to receive those who return with repentant hearts. His desire is always for restoration. Deut 4:29; 1 Chron 28:9; 2 Chron 7:14; 15:2; Neh 9:17; Isa 31:6; Hos 6:1; 4:4 "I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely ..." Mic 7:18; 1 Jn 1:9
B. God strives with the backslider (2 Ki 17:15), and he often must use extreme measures to bring us back. He lovingly will use anything--sickness, misery, grief--to get us to return. Psalm 107
C. His patience toward those who "keep on backsliding," however, is limited. God grows weary with sin. Prov 24:16; Jer 15:6, 7
Hos 11:7 "And my people are bent to backsliding from me ... How shall I give thee up ...? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? ... mine heart is turned within me..."
Heb 3:10 "Their hearts are always going astray ..."
Jer 8:5-12 "slidden back by a perpetual backsliding"
Jer 14:7- 12; 15:6, 7 "Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward...; I am weary with repenting... since they return not from their ways."
1. Some have a propensity to backsliding.
Jer 8:5-7
2. Some become reprobate--beyond any place of repentance.
Isa 1:5-6; Jer 6:30; 15:1; Ezek 22:18; Heb 6:6; 10:26-29, 38, 39; 1 Corin 5:10-13; Rev 2:4, 5, 21-23; 3:2, 3
3. If they are rejected of God, however, it is because they have rejected Him. His desire is always for our return.
2 Chron 30:6; Isa 31:6; Jer 3:4-22; Hos 6:1; 14:4-7
D. Backsliding displeases God and provokes him to anger.
2 Ki 17:11, 17, 18; Psa 78:56-59; 106:40; Zech 7:12
E. His eagerness for our return is pictured in the story of the prodigal, how the father "ran" to meet him. Lk 15:20

WHAT DOES GOD REQUIRE OF THE BACKSLIDER WHO DESIRES TO RETURN?

A. “... only acknowledge thine iniquity." Jer 3:13, 14; 12:13
B. Change your ways. Job 22:23; Psa 51:3-4; Isa 1:16-20

3 comments:

XtianDoctrine said...

I certainly agree that the reason we all are concerned about where we are spiritually is so that we may do something about it. We all know things don't just happen by chance. God is stirring up our spirits in order for us re-engage with Him....just like...yes...the good old days....sorry John...

Olubukola said it...we used to be called wordites. What do you think they'll call us now? Worldites be more like it. We're so caught up with the cares of this world...all of us.

So brethren let us lift each up in the place of prayers...that is after we've put the fire back on the altars of our personal prayers lives.

amma said...

Laying aside every WEIGTH,and SIN which doth SO easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us( Heb 12v1b).

john said...

Uvoh thank you for the postings. They indeed have generated a lot of heat and awakened a lot of us to freely.....if at times carelessly, as I did.....express our suppressed thoughts via this forum.

What I was alluding to in my earlier comments...which apprantly didn't come out well.....was the fact that we are now at a different stage in our lives....a different phase....than we were years ago while in college.

In college we were kids....mostly mid to late teens and early twenties......devoid of much responsiblities and barely a care in the world. We had time in our hands and youth exuberance and energy on our side. Unlike our peers though we used all of that to passionately serve God. More so we lived within the campus bubble.....shielded from the realities of the world outside. We didn't have to look too far to see a brother or sister "cabbashing" for 3, 4, 5 hours at a stretch. We wake up daily to the early morning preachings by another sister in the hallways.

But things are different now. We are much older.....thirties, forties, even fifties.....with loads of resposbilites and "competing passions". We've stepped out of the college bubble into the crucible of the real world - Wives, husbands, children, in-laws, church politics, office shenanigans, rents/mortgages, car notes, name it.

All of these weigh us down, drag us back, and prevent us from serving the Lord the way we "think" we ought to serve Him.

What do we now do as Christians living in a fallen world....a world that is very much anti God....? I guess we to adjust and adapt. This is not to suggest we compromise, but rather we need to re-learn how to...as Akin mentioned in one of his postings......fit our lives into God's plan and purpose.

We may not now have time to wake up early in the morning and have very long quiet times, but how about praying while we drive to work. The office may frown at our reading the bible while at work, but we could read bible online, or download it into our iPods. It might be against the law to proselyte in the societies where we dwell, but how about living out lives in a such a way that our actions rather our words preach the Christian message.

I'm sure by now you get my drift. Rather than beating ourselves up for not doing things the way we used to do them in college, why don't we find a way to still please Him wherever, however we are, knowing that God cannot be put in a box. He sees our desires, knows our intentions and hear out heart cry.