Hope for backsliders?

Backslider - an interesting word. We don't hear it much anymore.

I don't know why. It still fits.

The dictionary says to backslide is to: slide backward in morals or religious enthusiasm; become less virtuous, less pious, etc.

The picture is of someone on a slippery path who slides back - he is not holding on...he has lost his grip....but there is something or someone to hold on to, something to bear his grip. He just lets go.

We never picture a backslider without seeing that he was first being pulled up by something or someone. Or perhaps he was pulling himself up by grasping a rail or rope, and then he loses his grip and slips back.

There are many examples in Scripture of believers who backslid, or fell away.

The Apostle Peter fell, but he was not lost. He came back with enthusiasm and steadiness of purpose.

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers," Jesus told him (Luke 22:32).

Simon Peter suffered loss, but he was not lost.

John Mark is another example.

He failed so miserably on his first missionary journey
(he abandoned his companions) that when his uncle Barnabas suggested he go on the second journey, Paul turned him down.

Paul as much as said, "Never! he failed last time and I am through with him!" (Acts 15:37-40) so Barnabas took the young man with him to Cyprus and Paul chose Silas and left on his trip.

It caused a rift between Paul and Barnabas.

Paul was through with John Mark, but God wasn't!

And before he died, Paul wrote to Timothy and requested, "Take Mark, and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry (2 Timothy 4:11).

Peter and Mark - backsliders who were restored!

Restoration - to bring back to a former condition -
is enacted every day in God's Kingdom.

And ever notice that "restoration" always refers to
bringing something or someone back to a former condition that was finer, better than the present condition?

We never think of restoring someone or something to an earlier, less perfect, condition. Why would we want to do that anyway?

So backsliding is always backward to a less desired position, and restoring is always to a better, more
preferable place.

God is in the business of restoring us. He wants to
bring us up, raise us higher - always!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with

every spiritual blessing in Christ.

For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world...

in him we have redemption through his blood,

the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the

riches of God's grace that he lavished on us

with all wisdom and understanding.

 (Ephesians 1:3-8).

And God raised us up in Christ and seated us up with him 

in  the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

 in order that in the coming ages he 

 might show the incomparable riches of his grace,

expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

(Ephesians 2:6-7).

What He does for backsliders:

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

(Psalm 40:2-3)

Backsliding? Backslidden? He's ready to lift you out

and put you up on a solid rock, not a slippery rock.

 Those "streams of mercy" are "never ceasing" and they still "call for songs of greatest praise"!