“The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above.” Proverbs 14:14
Backsliding
Have you ever tried to climb a mountainside on a slippery slope? With every step your feet slide back a little. Rocks and dirt come loose and fill in the spot just behind you where your feet were only moments before. You look for any sort of handhold so you can get ahead—the branch of a bush perhaps, though it is inevitably dead and breaks off in your hand, or a boulder that looks sturdy enough to grab, but though it has been in that exact spot in the dirt for eons, your touch suddenly dislodges it and it is unreliable to pull yourself up on.
The Lord has much to say about backsliding, and it is exactly this picture from my hiking days that occurs to me as I read the Scriptures.
The meaning of the word backsliding is “turning back; defecting; faithlessness; disloyalty; reverting.” It is turning away from God.
God has a made a path for us to walk on, and He leads us on it. The path the Lord has prepared for us is right (Proverbs 4:11) and smooth (Psalm 27:11). “When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, and when you run, you will not stumble” (Proverbs 4:12).
Christ made that path for us. He walked it already. He smoothed it and put lights on it (Proverbs 4:18) and walks alongside us when we are on it. Yet sometimes we look at that slippery slope off to the side, and say, “Gosh, that looks fun. I’d like to walk on that slope awhile.” We can choose darkness if we’d like (He didn’t put lights on that path); but you know you’ll stumble in the dark. “The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble” (Proverbs 4:19).
In Jeremiah 2:17 and 19a, He says, “Have you not brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken the Lord your God when He led you in the way?… Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you.” If we have loved the Lord, then our backslidings and the things that happen on that downward slope will be the very things that correct us and get us back on path.
His path is not slippery. He does not tempt us to turn away from Him. He does everything He can to keep us safely in His keeping. He never turns us over to the enemy—that is, unless we insist on traveling the slippery slope. (Twice, Paul writes of “delivering” people over to Satan so they will learn their lessons and come back to Christ, implying the removal of God’s protection. See 1 Corinthians 5:5 and 1 Timothy 1:20.)
If we have found ourselves backsliding, turning away from God, let’s stop right now. Get off the slope and back on the smooth, pre-lit, righteous path where Jesus waits. Pray for God to heal our backsliding hearts, because He says He will. “Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (Jeremiah 3:22a). His heart is broken as He watches His beloved children scratch and claw at anything to keep from falling and stumbling.
Reach out your hand to His today. He’ll grab you and hold tight, setting you back on the smooth path.
Lord, forgive our backslidings. May our hearts be fully turned towards You. Amen.