1 Samuel 15:12
“So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, ‘Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.’”

Backsliding is not an event but a process. It usually happens slowly, and oftentimes, the person backsliding is not even aware that it is happening. What is backsliding? Backsliding is the gradual process whereby a person begins moving away from the Lord.

One thing to note about backsliding is that it applies only to people who used to be “in the right place with God” and then, for some reason, started moving away from Him. Moving away from God is not the most important indication of backsliding; what we need to watch out for is, “What are we moving into?” If we detect the new attraction, then we can curb the process.

But therein lies the real problem. It is often difficult to understand what that attraction is. The process of backsliding usually starts with an unseen inner process: a new heart desire, new ambition, new priority, or new conviction. Because these inner things are not obvious, it is difficult to know how to curb the backsliding process, except the Lord reveals things to us.

For Saul, we see a hint of what may have been the new conviction: and that was an obsession with himself. He hadn’t always been like that, but here we see him beginning to do something new. The Bible says he started building “a monument for himself.” This was the first time he had done this, and this outward action only revealed what he must have been thinking on the inside.

As mentioned before, backsliding is a process that begins in the dark inner chambers of the heart. It begins with new desires and new convictions. For us to curb any possibility of backsliding, we need God to constantly x-ray those hidden thoughts of ours. God needs to show us where our convictions are beginning to slide away from Him, and into new areas.

Just as it happened with Saul, we must be aware that having a preoccupation with ourselves and wanting to be known and seen as important is a slippery slope away from God. Self-absorption is a yeast that infects the soul and leads to backsliding. Let’s check our hearts for extra sensitivities towards our self-importance, and let’s cut off any such strange desire in our souls.

In conclusion, backsliding is real, and like Saul, it can have a devasting effect on our faith. Let’s never trivialize it but live in constant watchfulness for traces of its presence.