The Scriptures are full of believers who slide down the slippery slope or off the sheer cliff. Haven’t you seen this in your life, the casual drifting away from God until you hardly know him? And don’t you grieve over the long list of believers, many of them among the greatest followers of Christ, who inexplicably dove into some sin that wrecked their conscience?

Since God so often warns us of spiritual decay, and since he makes so many promises of recovery from it, and since we have so many striking examples of those who stumbled, it shouldn’t surprise us that there are so many in the church every day whose hearts are dull. But what about you? How is it with your soul? Are you drifting or just going nowhere with God?

Until we are convinced of our own backsliding, there can’t be healing. But conviction has to be the work of the Spirit (Psa. 139:23–24). Stop now and ask for his help. Then prayerfully answer the following questions:

 

1. Do you have peace and joy? Peace and joy come from a faithful, healthy life of faith. Have your peace and joy stayed steady through hardship and temptation, or do you quickly become uneasy and confused? The peace of Christ isn’t consistent with spiritual decay. If you’ve lost your peace, you have in some degree slipped away from Christ.

2. Do you see outward signs of decay in your spiritual life? Often we don’t need to mine deep within our souls to find rot. It’s lying right on the surface where anyone can see it, like the paint peeling off the walls of a house. Arrogance, selfishness, worldliness, extravagance, excessive attention to leisure, vulgar or loose talk, and being consumed by work or ambition are all obvious ways of the world.

3. Are you tired of God? The very question should shock you—but in their sin God’s people grow tired of him. Have you lost your taste for worship, either public or private? Do you neglect family prayer?

Or, what’s worse, are you still outwardly faithful in all your spiritual disciplines, yet as lifeless as a robot? Do you draw close to God with your lips while your heart is on the golf course or still in bed (Isa. 29:13; Matt. 15:8; Mark 7:6)? I say this is worse because “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24), and because God gives severe warnings to those whose worship is hollow (see Psa. 50).

4. Are you hiding known sin? Another way we can lose our hearts for worship is by trying to keep a pet sin we refuse to let go of, as when Augustine prayed for God to give him sexual purity, but not just yet. Worship in spirit and truth has great power to destroy sin. No one can worship God in spirit and truth without being broken over known sins. So in order to keep up both a secret sin and spiritual worship, worship has to be hollowed out until it’s an empty shell of formalities.

5. Does the glory of God shine through you? There are graces that obviously show his glory, such as zeal for Christ, humility before God and others, brokenness over sin, a mind constantly on the things of God, love, and self-denial. Are these coursing through your veins, even if you’re an older believer? Are they increasing in you (2 Pet. 1:8), so that the fruit of them shows God’s faithful supply of grace?

6. How’s your spiritual appetite? Do you still relish the milk of the Word of God (1 Pet. 2:2–3)? I’ve known several people, especially those who are older, who were hospitalized because they wouldn’t eat—something made them lose their taste for food. Someone who has lost his or her spiritual hunger is just as sick. Ask yourself not only whether you still want to hear the Word preached, but also whether you want it as much as you used to?

Another reason we lose our appetite is that we’re stuffed. That sight of a slice of Death by Chocolate turns the stomach of someone who has gorged himself or herself on the Mexican Combination Plate. “He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet” (Pro. 27:7). Loss of spiritual appetite can also come from being stuffed—stuffed full of self, full of the world.

7. Is Christ the first and best thought of your life? When our spirits flourish, everything else in life takes a back seat to the precious Lamb of God. He sits on the throne of all we think about, long for, and do. We want to know and do what pleases him (Eph. 5:10). But the backslider puts religion in its place. Faith is just one of many pursuits in life. It gets its one day in seven—or at least a few hours of one day in seven—and no more. God is an unwelcome intruder into business, school, friendships, entertainment.

8. Do you go out of your way for Christ and his people? Someone who is living in Christ bears fruit—especially the fruit of love that serves others (see John 15:1–17 in the context of John 13 and 14). When God calls you to serve, how quickly do you volunteer? Hesitation to serve is a sign of spiritual disease.

 

Did the Spirit search your heart? Did he shine his searchlight into hidden corners where it’s cold or dark or dry? If so, and if your heart is softening toward Christ and longing for renewal, rejoice! This is a sign of his grace to you. Perhaps these words could serve as your prayer:

 

A Better Resurrection

 

I have no wit, no words, no tears;

My heart within me like a stone

Is numbed too much for hopes or fears;

Look right, look left. I dwell alone;

I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief

No everlasting hills I see;

My life is in the falling leaf:

O Jesus, quicken me.

 

My life is like a faded leaf,

My harvest dwindled to a husk:

Truly my life is void and brief

And tedious in the barren dusk;

My life is like a frozen thing,

No bud nor greenness can I see:

Yet rise it shall the sap of Spring;

O Jesus, rise in me.

 

My life is like a broken bowl,

A broken bowl that cannot hold

One drop of water for my soul

Or cordial in the searching cold;

Cast in the fire the perished thing;

Melt and remold it, till it be

A royal cup for Him, my King:

O Jesus, drink of me.

 

(Christina Rossetti)

 

From Through the Looking Glass, © 2002 by Kris Lundgaard. Used by permission of P&R Publishing Company. All rights reserved. www.prpbooks.com