Seventeen times the Old Testament mentions words like “backsliding, backslide, and backslider!”
Using different Hebrew words, the English meaning is consistent, people who “turn away” from the Lord.
These people knew the Truth, then rejected and disdained the very Truth they once espoused!
Jeremiah, more than any other Old Testament Prophet, used this word picture, backsliding … “stubborn repudiation of the Truth that was once held so dear, that once was pledged to be obeyed!”
Typical is Jeremiah 8:5 … “Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.”
BUT A LITTLE WHILE AGO, AS I READ GOD’S WORD, PSALM 26 TO BE EXACT, I FOUND THESE WORDS … “I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall NOT slide.” Psalm 26:1, a Psalm of David!
A cure for (back)sliding, drifting away from the Lord?
TRUST, in megadoses, in ever growing quantities … produces a life that will not “slide” away from the Lord!
That noun for “trust,” spelled “batach” in Hebrew, means “trust” in this sense; to believe and rely upon and accept as truth everything God says, even to the point of “no worry.” Trusting … without a trace of a doubt as to the outcome of a matter! Once “batach” is translated “to be careless,” care free, not a bit apprehensive. God will keep His Word!
That kind of TRUST … according to our Text … precludes any kind of “sliding” away from the Lord!
I love preventative Verses like this!
Again … “I have trusted also in the LORD; THEREFORE I shall not slide.”
Reminds me of Psalm 15, it last verse … “He that doeth these things shall never be moved.”
In sum, the closer we live to Jesus … the less the chance, the likelihood … that we will turn away!
Wow!
Yes, Jesus can keep us from sliding, and more!
Actually to this point … “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” …
Lord, we claim this for ourselves.
“Increase our faith,” we ask in Jesus’ Name. And that short prayer, when answered, leads to a skid-proof life, “never sliding!”
Amen.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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