Today topic:BACKSLIDER-IN-HEART I
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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