+DEV+ Promise to Heal Backsliding

Date: March 9, 2011 1:36 AM
Topic: +DEV+ Promise to Heal Backsliding

Promise to Heal Backsliding

"I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily" (Hosea 14:4).
Scripture Focus: Hosea 14:1-9

As in the case of Israel in Hosea's time, the cause of our backsliding is idolatry. We take some part of God's created order and use it as an object of regard in and for itself. It may be our work, our family, sex, food, or our own powers of discernment. If these things, good in themselves, have sway in our lives, they are idols. Idolatry always erodes our devotion to the Lord, and we become double-minded, split personalities unable ultimately to even receive God's good things (See James 1:6-8).

A sure sign of our backsliding is when we give to other people, other philosophical systems, or to political correctness, the honor which should belong exclusively to the Word of God.

The world, flesh and the devil corrode single-minded devotion to Jesus; we lose our first love. When we "come to our senses," the waiting Father rushes to meet us and throws His arms around us. He doesn't stint on His favor. He will fully accept and honor us as we blossom again.

Insight: Has some sin got hold of us which has become the enemy's stronghold in our life? The name of Jesus is powerful to destroy it.