BACKSLIDER-IN-HEART I – Wednesday
April 19th 2017
Memorise: The
backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be
satisfied from himself. Proverbs 14:14
Read: Judges
14:1-3 (King James Version)
14:1 And Samson
went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the
Philistines.
4:2 And he came up, and told his father
and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of
the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
14:3 Then his father and his mother said
unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among
all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?
And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
Bible in one
year: Numbers 7, Jeremiah 16:1-13, Hymn: Sing hymn 16
MESSAGE:
Backsliding
is not an event but a gradual process that occurs over a period of time until
is get to a noticeable stage. At that stage, people will begin to say an
individual has backslidden, but what they fail to realise is that it did not
start at that point.
Backsliding begins in the heart. When a believer becomes
filled with his or her own ways, that believer has begun to backslide. That
person would always be right in his or her own sight, and others would be
wrong. Such a person would no longer take advice from anybody, becoming a
loner. In today’s Bible reading, we see the case of Samson, an anointed
Nazirite to the Lord, who began to backslide right from his heart. The way
today’s Bible reading begins is significant: “And Samson went down….” When a person
begins to go down, may the Lord have mercy on him or her. As he went down, he
saw an abomination that enticed him: a Philistine woman. He came to his father
and mother to tell them of his intention to marry the Philistine woman. His
parents counselled him against this abominable desire, but regardless of their
warning, Samson said “Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.”
When a child of God begins to nurse
the idea of getting engaged to an unbeliever, no doubt, he or she has started
backsliding in the heart. An unbeliever should not be an attractive option for
a genuine child of God. A female child of God should find it repugnant for a
smoker or drunkard to become her husband; after all, such a person will get
intimate with her after wedlock with smoky lips or a mouth saturated with
alcohol. 19 April 2017 Open heavens devotional 2017. A Christian brother
should also see it as degrading to be married to a lady operating under the
influence of the spirit of Jezebel – knowing full well how Jezebel destroyed
her husband (Ephesians
2:2, 1st Kings 21:25). You are
influenced by the environment you live in and the people you are intimate with.
An unbelieving woman of man will act as a weight around your neck, dragging you
down to the pit of hell. The different abominable things going on in the world
are enough to deter a genuine child of God from marrying a person who is not
under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Such a person is not restrained from doing
whatever the devil suggests to his or her heart and does not share the same
standard of the word of God as a moral compass for life. Today, we hear of
wives sleeping with drivers and domestic staff, and we also hear of husbands
sleeping with housemaids and their wife’s sisters – things that are abominable
in the sight of God. Do you know that an unbeliever might not find these things
abominable? It is a terrible thing to be associated with an “uncircumcised
Philistine” in these end times. Beware of backsliding!
Prayer Point
Father,
completely destroy the works of the devil in my life and in your Church.
Open Heaven Daily Devotional, written by Pastor E.A Adeboye,
The General Overseer
of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church
in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.
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