EVIDENCES OF A BACKSLIDDEN CONDITION

From Revival, by Richard Owen Roberts

Backslidden Christians are evident everywhere. They are in the churches and out of the churches. They are in the pews and in the pulpits. They are on boards and are bored. They are on committees and teach Sunday school. The backslidden seem to be more numerous than the upright and their influence throughout the world vastly more profound. While backsliders do not all manifest the same traits, evidences of their condition are not difficult to pinpoint. The following characteristics merit our serious attention.

1. When prayer ceases to be a vital part of a professing Christian’s life, backsliding is present. It is shocking to realize that many churches have no public prayer meetings of any kind. More upsetting is the fact that many individual Christians have no regular stated seasons of private prayer during which they commune alone with God. How can a person be both Christian and prayerless? However, prayer does not need to be entirely lacking from a person’s life for backsliding to prevail. When prayer becomes perfunctory and without moral earnestness, there is more than ample evidence of backsliding. Some who say their prayers every day never pray. The formulation of thoughts and ideas along religious lines, the mouthing of words, the bowing of the head and body and the repetition of phrases, do not in and of themselves constitute real prayer. If the heart does not earnestly commune with God, no genuine prayer is present. The mere repetition of written prayers, no matter how beautifully constructed or seemingly sincere, does not guarantee genuine prayer. When the heart of man and the heart of God meet in communion, there is prayer. Prayerlessness and mere formality in saying prayers are unmistakable marks of a backslidden condition.

FURTHER NOTE FROM BRO. FLORES: I used to believe that praying for approximately thirty minutes before going to bed meant that I was doing pretty well. Of course, I didn’t even pray after waking up in the morning. Maybe in a good day, I might get in about an hour’s time. Add a few minutes at church, I really felt I was a true praying Christian; and that even as a pastor! Now, I can see why my ministry was not blessed by God! What is so sad about this is that in all of my years in my ministry, I really never heard a minister of the Gospel say anything to encourage me about praying as an essential practice for a pastor to pray for at least two or three hours a day! In fact, I’m sorry to say that I heard ministers encourage slothfulness in personal and private prayer. But praise to God, He has shown me that when prayer becomes a delight, then time doesn’t matter. Spending time with the Lord in prayer can actually run into hours; and then those precious Scriptures of prayer, such as 1 Thessalonians 5:16 – “Pray without ceasing”; Romans 12:12 – “Continue instant in prayer”; Colossians 4:2 – “Continue in prayer...”; Luke 18:1 – “...men ought always to pray, and not to faint” do become a reality and not a burden. This kind of praying DOES NOT depend on our strength, but on God’s grace. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying that we are to pray 24 hours a day on our knees; but I do say that if we don’t pray but for just a few minutes a day, or whenever we have time or are not tired, then obviously we are in a very serious backslidden condition. You can be sure of one thing: Prayerlessness is equal to powerlessness in the Christian life! Amen.

(To be continued)