Title

The Hidden Backslider

Scripture
The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above.
(Proverbs 14:14)
Devotional
Everything begins in the heart. Dreams, goals, righteousness, and sin are born in the heart. Just as these things begin there, they can also end there. God says that if you have done it in your heart, you have done it openly. The potential to succeed or fail is in our hearts. The thoughts of the heart do not need to manifest themselves to accomplish their consequence. Sin in the heart, whether committed openly or not can destroy the best of dreams. For you see, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”(1) We can fool man by our outward actions, but not God. He is more concerned with the heart than the deed, and He awards accordingly. When there is good in our hearts, God will satisfy that heart. Remember, if you do it wrong in the heart, you have done it wrong openly, but if your heart is right, God knows.

(1) 1 Samuel 16:7
Text For The Day
Proverbs 14:14: The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above.
Thought For The Day
“It's not the ship in the water but the water in the ship that sinks it. So it’s not the Christian in the world but the world in the Christian that constitutes the danger.” J. Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918) Evangelist and pastor.
 
Questions To Ponder
Morning Study Guide
Defining:  To be a “backslider” one must have once been in a right relationship. You cannot fall back from where you have never been. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines backslide: “To fall off; to apostatize; to turn gradually from the faith and practice of Christianity.”
 
Referencing: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him,” Hosea 14:4.
 
Applying: I know of no greater application than the instruction found in Jude, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh,” Jude 21-23.