Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A Fresh Encounter”
Our Bible verse for today: “Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” Jeremiah 3:22 (NKJV)
Our thought for today: “The drift away from God is almost always subtle.”
I’m not sure that anyone would ever want to boil a frog in a pot of hot water but if you did, you would not simply drop a live frog into boiling water. If you did do that then the frog would immediately leap back out of the pot.
The way to boil a frog (if you were so inclined), would be to gently place the frog in a pot of slightly warm water. The pleasing sensation of the comfortably warm water will cause the frog to relax and stay right there. Then you very slowly increase the heat until the water is boiling. The change in temperature will be so subtle that the frog won’t even notice it as its occurring. He will just keep adjusting to the subtle and acceptable changes until finally the change has become so severe (without him realizing it) that he boils to death.
That illustration of subtle incremental changes is also a picture of how Christians end up drifting away from the Lord. It happens very slowly, incrementally, over a long period of time. Because the changes are slight we usually don’t realize they’re happening, and because they are continuous we don’t realize how far away from God they’re taking us. That’s a condition many Christians are in today and they don’t even realize it. They are far from the Lord but because they’re sitting in a pew every Sunday they think they’re doing fine.
Usually when we think of a Christian in a “backslidden” condition we think of someone who used to be faithful but is now out carousing in the bars and cursing like a sailor. And while that is one description of being backslidden, the term actually refers to someone who has lost ground spiritually and has therefore “backslidden” to an earlier state.
For many Christians this means that they are actually less spiritually mature than they used to be. They have lost ground in their relationship with the Lord and it happened so slowly, so incrementally, that they don’t even realize it has happened. It has become the new normal for them, and all the while they’re sitting there thinking everything is fine.
In Jeremiah 3:22 God was speaking to the entire nation of Israel. They were all in a spiritually backslidden condition but they thought they were doing just fine. So in an effort to open their eyes to their true spiritual condition, God sent the prophet Jeremiah to speak words of conviction and truth to them. God’s solution to their problem was, “Return to Me!” That was it, just acknowledge that you have slipped and take the actions necessary to correct it. They needed a fresh encounter with the Lord.
Where are you at in your relationship with God? Is it possible that overtime you have backslidden – lost ground from where you used to be – and you don’t even realize it? Spend some time with the Lord today and invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you about where you really are with God. Then be prepared to do something about it if needed.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 