ANOTHER SIGN OF BACKSLIDING<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1 Samuel 15:15 (NKJV)
\u201cAnd Saul said, \u2018They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We continue our discussion on the issue of backsliding. As we have mentioned several times before, backsliding does not just happen. It is a process, and it takes time. As a pilgrim begins to slide backwards and away from God, it is good to observe certain signs. Hopefully, if caught early, he can re-arrange his life away from the backsliding process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another important sign of backsliding therefore, is the unwillingness to take responsibility when things go wrong or when we act in ways that contradict God\u2019s commandments. While the correct thing to do is to own up to it and confess it, unfortunately, the backsliding pilgrim will always be quick to blame others. This is part of the corruption and deception of backsliding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No one is immune to error. One major sign of a healthy pilgrim life is the willingness to own up to error, and to confess error. I fear those \u201csuper-spiritual\u201d brethren who live in a bubble of self-deception and \u201csuper righteousness,\u201d and somehow think that they cannot err. This in itself sets them up for backsliding because they will not know when and how to repent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Personal repentance is key to remaining in the pilgrim life. Owning up to our failures is not a failure but a strength. The inability to own up is simply a manifestation of the self-life, and those under this bondage can never grow into the image of Christ. Becoming like Christ means learning to constantly forsake the old and embrace the new. That\u2019s pilgrimage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Samuel confronted Saul and pointed out his error, rather than owning up to it, he pushed the blame to the people. He said, \u201cThey have brought them\u2026the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God.\u201d Even if that were true, for Saul to speak like that was irresponsible leadership. But actually, it wasn\u2019t true. He simply put the blame on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t blame others for your personal failures. Don\u2019t always make it look like others are the ones responsible for your disobedience. Trust God for the grace to always act in ways that glorify Him. And if you fail, simply own up to it, confess it, make the needed changes, and move on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANOTHER SIGN OF BACKSLIDING 1 Samuel 15:15 (NKJV)\u201cAnd Saul said, \u2018They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.\u2019\u201d We continue our discussion on the issue of backsliding. As we have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-1st-samuel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/1-Samuel-Cover.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6770,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6769\/revisions\/6770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}