"God has not only given us grace for salvation but grace for sustaining us in our salvation. The hand of God never relaxes its grip on our souls. We are not grains of sand that fall through his fingers."
Backsliding.
This is a special point in every Christian's life when we are already opted to pursue the path to perfection and mastery, and yet we tend to go back down a little each day. To backslide is not always something that we are conscious of doing. In actuality, it creeps to us in the subtlest of ways but effectively leading us away from what God wants for us.
We all start like infants with God. And it is just normal for our spirituality to mature in time as well. At first, He only asks very little of us, just like by asking us to surrender small things only to Him. And then we are able to become faithful in doing these small things, we therefore begin to grow.
And then He starts asking for more from us. At this point, He starts asking for us to give to Him things that we find a little more difficult to give up. Those things and aspects in our lives that we do not have so much control over. One good example would be Him asking you to forgive someone you are so mad with. This is the crucial time when we start realizing a lot.
It is not such a bad thing to admit that it takes a lot to be obedient on our part and the difficulty of realizing that God is trying to perfect us. If we would take a keener look at what is really going on, we will see pride clearly as trouble number one.
We always assume that we are doing things out of our own human energy just to please God and be good in His sight when in reality we are incapable of doing anything that will make us righteous. It is only Christ who can accomplish that on our behalf.
With this then, we proceed to trouble number two. We wonder why we fail on the things we do for Him because we shut Him out, not acknowledging that the things He might be asking you to do -- He is asking you to do it with His help, and not by your own efforts.
The bottom point? We must at least be 'willing' so God can do the 'doing' for us. So He can give you strength to do whatever. Our only role is to never stop asking Him to help us endure and be far from temptation.
Think about this one too. You feel good when you think you succeeded with obeying and then you feel bad when you fail to obey. This should not be the perspective if you recognize all along that this is not even your battle. This is God's battle and He only ask of us to be willing, for us to let Him do it. Remember that nothing can set you up for failure so much more than when good and bad feelings mix up. You will surely miss the mark.
Hence, we can conclude at this point that backsliding is the inability to understand the role of God in your life. It is about being spiritually blind. And backsliding can happen over and over if we would lose the 'will' that God waits to have from us and if we would give in to temptation of stress, in particular.
God is ever willing to forgive us and always give us the chance to try and try again. But do not think that just because God is ever loving and forgiving that He would protect you from the consequences that come with backsliding. God loves us dearly but He also hates sin terribly. To backslide is a choice we do. It is choosing what the world thinks of us instead of what God wants for us (2 Timothy 4:10). And the consequence? He has to withdraw the rewards He has set for us and the protection in those delicate areas of our lives (Isaiah 59:2).
Remember that our unwillingness greatly displeases Him (Ps.78:56).
Hence, to conquer this, we must remember these things:
-When He asks us to accomplish something, He is not telling you to do it on your own. He wants you to be willing to ask Him to do it for you.
-When we fail we just have to ask for forgiveness and go back to surrendering to Him again.
-Never forget to thank Him for the work and effort He is putting into you.
-Choose His intervention over any temptation.
Do you really want to continue displeasing Him?
