One step forward, two steps back

English explorer William Edward Parry and crew explored the Arctic Ocean. They were walking north according to the stars, but after hours and with exhaustion, they stopped to take their bearings again, only to find they were further south than when they’d started! They were walking on an ice floe that was traveling faster south than they were walking north.

I have days like that. Sometimes it is related to my chore list. I’m trying to purge unwanted items such as old CDs and clothes that don’t fit. However, the more I go down the list, the more stuff I find to add to it. Some days this purging chore seems overwhelming.

Other times the one step forward, two backwards is about the battle with sin. I’ve confessed something God shows me only to realize how much more junk remains on that to-do list. Confess one bad attitude and two more show up.

MacArthur writes about this principle in terms of those who neglect to listen to God and instead of dealing with what they hear, they ignore it and drift past what he calls the harbor of salvation. This is dangerous because it can lead to hardness of heart and eternal judgment. That one step forward is important even if sliding backwards happens. It means taking more steps, moving on in obedience no matter how long it takes to get there. This is about God calling and about sinners arriving at the foot of the cross and salvation.

But it also applies to sanctification. If I do not deal with the sin that He shows me, then I slide backwards into other sin. One step forward is vital, meaning confessing what I’ve done and keeping short accounts with God:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Yet even when that step is taken, my spiritual enemy or my old nature usually tries to drag me down again. It happened yesterday. I had been praying with deeper faith than ever, and the ‘accuser’ hit me with past sin and guilt to the point of despair. Two steps back? It felt more like two hundred. I was hearing lies but it seemed like truth. Then God gave this thought: Is all that biblical? And I realized what I heard was not true, at least in the sense of not being covered by the blood of Christ.

Today’s devotional begins with this statement: “God’s Word is the anchor that will prevent people from drifting past the harbor of salvation” and uses this verse:

Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

At that, my loving Savior had me comparing the accusations of Satan to the truths of God’s Word and I realized that a lie had me stumbling backwards into great doubt and fear. As soon as that came to mind, so also did the truth that countered those lies, truth from the Bible, truth that I already knew but had not put together in the context of those accusations. Immediately, Jesus set me free. The next one step forward was for me a giant step.

This also stresses other important truths. One is that the enemy will never cease in his efforts to prevent God’s people from praying with faith because he knows the power of prayer and how God uses it to do mighty things according to His will. Sometimes those two steps back are the devil’s way of jerking me into prayerlessness.

However, God is even more determined to have His way in my life. He will use all things, even this thing . . .

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

Even when it seems I am going backwards, this is not beyond God’s power to use slip-sliding in transforming my life. The words in Hebrews 2:1 are nautical terms. “Pay much closer attention to” and “drift away from” mean “to tie up a ship,” and to speak of a ship that has been carelessly allowed to drift past the harbor because the sailor forgot to attend to the steerage or to chart the wind, tides, and current. MacArthur says this verse could be translated: “We must diligently anchor our lives to the things we have been taught, lest the ship of life drift past” the safe harbor where God wants us to be anchored.

PRAY: I’m so glad, Jesus, that You steer my ship as You also control the storms. You used this latest battle to show me a lie that can be devastating, not just to me but to the faith of Your other children. May I wisely use the truth You used to counter this lie, first in my own thinking and to help others who are drifting because of it.

PONDER: Proverbs 4:20–22. Note the importance of clinging to God’s Word whenever Satan tries to convince me that I’m sliding backwards.

 

 

 

The danger of sliding back

Imagine going down a hill in a vehicle with no brakes running backwards. That is how I should feel every time that I throw a damper on the Holy Spirit of God.

Today’s devotional reading is about how that happens and what I need to watch out for in my life. While it seems a terror to avoid, stifling the Spirit of God happens far more easily than one might suppose.

Out of this passage, Chambers selects the shortest line: “Do not quench the Spirit” . . .

“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14–22)

How can the Holy Spirit be quenched? Chambers says that the Spirit’s voice is so gentle that only those in perfect communion with God will hear Him. Obviously, one way to quench the Spirit is by not listening, being too busy with other things to listen, to push Him away with noise, ear buds, and activity.

Chambers also says to beware of living on memories under a refusal to walk in the light today, saying, “Years ago, Jesus did this or that” rather than, “This morning I heard God speak.” When I spend more time talking about His work in my life back when, then I’m likely hiding unconfessed sin and refusals to listen somewhere in the past. I need to get on my knees, find out what it was, and confess it to God so that I am no longer quenching the Spirit. 

Another ‘opportunity’ to quench the Spirit is when God brings a crisis and I don’t quite get through it. So He engineers a repeat, but in the repeat His voice is less keen and I become more annoyed with my disobedience. This is a serious change of focus from being concerned about my relationship with God to caring more about my performance. In this, I am quenching the Spirit. If I continue, the crisis may or may not be repeated. The danger is that the Spirit has thrown up His hands and left me to become very sick of myself. I can waste a lot of time and energy in self-pity and beating up myself.

If I am making excuses for my disobedience and feeling sorry that I have to give up that which is an affront to God but an enjoyable habit to me, I am quenching the Spirit. I have forgotten that God has to slay whatever it is that I am using to please myself instead of pleasing Him.

Besides Chambers’ words of wisdom, the context of this passage offers more. If I envy or join the idle instead of admonishing them, or if I ignore, put down, or become impatient with those who struggle, I am quenching the Spirit. If I repay evil for evil or even put up with the evil that others do, I am quenching the Spirit.

I’m to rejoice always, pray constantly, and be thankful in all situations. This is the work of the Spirit in me, His fruit. If I don’t do these things, I am quenching Him.

Finally, if I resent and resist the Word of God through those who speak it, or if I don’t test what I hear and make sure it is good, or if I do any form of evil at all, I am quenching the work of the Holy Spirit in me.

Five words of instruction translate into an entire life, into all that I think, say, or do. Once I stop listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit, I am moving backwards and away from God. This is a most serious thing and horrifying, like going downhill backwards and out of control.