Encouragement

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Backslid in heart, is a great deal different than backslid in actions, I will try and explain! If you back-slide in actions you have something to put your finger on, but when you back-slide in heart, it is very difficult to figure out just where you have gone wrong. Unless of course, your heart is turned away from God, this however, was not my case at all! I loved God very much, and attended every church service, every prayer meeting, and almost every special meeting when called. I read the Bible faithfully, I taught Sunday School, and on the outside everything seemed to be just what it should be. I was not doing anything wrong in the sense that people deem as wrong in the church world, yet I knew that something was missing!

I have been a Christian for many years now, but I can still remember the wonders that happened in my Spirit, when Christ came to dwell in my heart. I must tell you though; I had some pretty strange preconceived ideas about religion before He got a hold of me! Yet His Spirit was so sweet and so powerful that He helped me to overcome them all. One of my biggest struggles at first was to just tell someone that I had accepted Christ into my life. I thought, oh people are going to laugh at me, and think that I am silly or something. Yet, that is the first thing the pastor said that I should do after accepting the Lord, was to go tell someone! Oh my, I sure had to wrestle with that one. It took me awhile to do it! I was talking on the phone to my best friend, at the time, and I said, “Pat guess what?” She said, “What”? I very sheepishly said, I got saved! She didn’t laugh; she didn’t poke fun at me, instead she said something that almost blew me away! She said, “Sharon I have noticed that you have been different lately, you have been so much nicer!” Wow! It even brings tears to my eyes this day to even think about it. Well, that was my first baby step in the Lord, and after that each step got just a little bit easier.

I am sharing this hoping that it might help someone who might be going through a time in their Christian life, where they feel something is missing, but can’t quite put their finger on it. I remember after my conversion that I was so excited and on fire for the Lord. Upon talking to some other long time Christians though, I sometimes noticed a look of sadness come upon their faces as I would chatter away so exuberantly about some wonderful things that the Lord had just shared with me. I now know what that look meant, but it left me puzzled at that time. I know now, that they were remembering when they had that excitement that glow, and wondered where it had gone! When that thrill seems to fade away, and the excitement starts to slow down, all of a sudden you realize that something is missing, but what?

I remember starting to feel like I was on that old treadmill, of now trying to earn my salvation, and I did not know what to do. It took me quite a while to realize that I was becoming religious! I still read my Bible, religiously, I still went to church religiously, and I still taught Sunday School religiously. But I had lost my first love, that fellowship of the Spirit which had been so near and dear to my heart. I was now reading the Bible more out of duty, and the need to study up for my Sunday School lesson, than for seeking and finding the heart of God. God allowed this to happen so He could teach me some lessons that I never could have gotten any other way. I was starting to become a Pharisee, and I did not even know it! Oh God I’m so glad that I’m not like so and so! Get the picture? I was beginning to become puffed up in the flesh, which is very displeasing to God. All of this time I thought I was so righteous, when in fact I was giving Him a great big headache! Sorry if the rest of you had to suffer from those repercussions. (smile)

During this time of being somewhat of a spiritual pain, I had become deeply involved in crafts. Sounds simple, sounds spiritually okay, right? No, not when you find yourself saying, “oh they give me so much joy, and pleasure.” No, not when you let it consume so much of your time that you no longer take the time to have real fellowship with God! I did not realize that was what had happened until one night at a prayer meeting. The speaker made some comment that some of us might have to give up some of the things that we really love, in order to have a better relationship with God. Yikes! The Holy Spirit took that straight to my heart and said, “your crafts.” You see anything can become sin when we let it come between us and God, and this is what I had let happen without even realizing it. The funny thing was, is that I used to donate most of the things I made to the church to be sold at their bazaars. Do you know that the pastor’s wife actually became a little upset with me, when I told her that I was going to have to lay crafts down, because I had let them become an idol in my life? I was really surprised by this. I thought that she would be supportive and understand, but that was not what I was getting. Nevertheless, I knew in my heart what had to be done and that was that.

However there is still more to the story, I went through all kinds of strange phases trying in my own way to please God. I have to really laugh at myself, when I think of some of the things that I did. At one point, I began wearing a hat, because of what it says in, “1 Corin. 11:5—But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. I called it the taming of the shrew, for I hated wearing that hat, and I was the only one in the congregation who wore one. But if that is what God wanted, far be it from me to not do it! (smile) I remember, once when going out the front door of the Church, the youth pastor somewhat smugly remarked, Sharon you hair can be your covering. I just smiled and said well with a double covering, I should get a double blessing. You see, that hat was between God and I, and nobody else! That is the way it has to be between us and God. He was disciplining me according to what He had put into my heart. It seems so very amusing right now, but do we not discipline our children on the level that we see fit? Only God knew how much it took for me to put that ridiculous hat on my head! I was so thankful, when He finally let me take it off. (smile)

Probably the most important thing that I learned through all of this, is that God gives to each one their own list of personal convictions. I am talking aside from the standard ones that pertain to all of us. I have learned to never make light of someone who is struggling with something that it of no importance to me. It is between them and God and He is disciplining them His way!

Well the final stages came when I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I just could not love others in the way which God said that we should. Oh I could pretend and do a pretty good job of putting on all the niceties. But I knew, and I knew that God knew, it was not genuine! Finally I told Him, “no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to find that missing factor in my life.” He spoke to my heart and said relax, “this is where I come in.” I am amazed to this day, for He truly began to manifest genuine love for others in my heart. Something that I had tried so hard to do for such a long time, and was not able to do on my own!

Still I had not yet come to that place in Him, where I so desperately wanted to be. One service during prayer time, I went and knelt in a corner all by my self and prayed. I said, “Lord, I have tried to make you my Lord, for such a long time, but I have not been able to! I know you as my Savior, but now I want to know you as my Lord.” I told Him I was giving the scepter of my kingdom back to Him. I said that I wanted Him to take full control of my life and for Him to be the One to reign, for I was not doing a very good job for myself. I asked Him to line my will up with His, and to help me understand what He was talking about in His word?

Well surprise, surprise, no thunderbolts, no lightening, but what a revelation! He began to let the scales fall from my eyes, and the first thing that He let me see….was those things in me that He was not pleased with! Ouch! That was not exactly what I had in mind. But in the process of time He and I have come a long way together. Now, I read the Bible to know Him, and ask Him to allow me to see those things which He wants me to see. The Bible is no longer a duty, but a joy and a privilege to read. Sometimes I almost cannot contain those things which He allows me to see. He has brought me out of such darkness, (ignorance) concerning so many things regarding the doctrines of men. He is my best friend, and we spend much time together, for He has become everything to me. I have to smile thinking way back to the time when I sheepishly spoke out for the Lord; for now I am a fountain, and sometimes people just don’t appreciate getting wet! (smile) Because once I get spewing I am hard to shut off!

I have my first love back and the joy of the Lord is my strength! So if you are one of those who have lost the joy. He is right there waiting for you to come and ask Him to be your first love once again. He wants that with all of His heart too! Each one of us is as individual as can be, for He fashioned us that way. (Psalm 33:15-He fashions the hearts individually ;) No one can take your place with Him! He wants His joy to be your strength, and your joy is also His strength. He is truly strengthened by our praise.

Psalm 147:1—Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful. Psalm 50:23—Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;
Can you imagine what would happen if we all began to PRAISE THE LORD EVERY DAY, and SEND UP PRAYERS for God TO STRENGTHEN HIS WORD and SEND IT out to HEAL, to DELIVER, and to SET THE CAPTIVES FREE? (Psalm 72:15—And He shall live; And the gold of Sheba will be given to Him; PRAYER also will be MADE for HIM CONTINUALLY, and DAILY He SHALL be PRAISED. (12) For He will deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who HAS NO HELPER. (13) He will spare the poor and needy, and will SAVE the SOULS of THE NEEDY, (14) He will REDEEM their LIFE from OPPRESSION and VIOLENCE; and precious shall be their blood in His sight. (18) BLESSED be THE LORD GOD, the God of Israel, who ONLY DOES WONDROUS THINGS! (19) And blessed be HIS GLORIOUS NAME FOREVER! And let THE WHOLE EARTH be FILLED with HIS GLORY. AMEN and AMEN. (This was a prayer of David, now may it become a prayer of ours!)

We will begin to see chains broken and loved ones healed and victories won as we begin to praise and to pray on a daily basis. PRAY FOR HIM DAILY to be strengthened in power and might to break the chains that bind us and to set us free! For God to send Him to bless and to heal and to deliver, and to give us back our great land, for His name’s sake. Psalm 107:19—Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. (2) HE SENT HIS WORD and HEALED THEM, and DELIVERED THEM from THEIR DESTRUCTIONS. (21) Oh, that men would GIVE THANKS to the Lord FOR HIS GOODNESS, and for HIS WONDERFUL WORKS to the CHILDREN of MEN! (22) Let them sacrifice THE SACRIFICES of THANKSGIVING, and DECLARE HIS WORKS with REJOICING.

God bless each and everyone who reads this article, and give them the OIL of JOY for mourning, the GARMENT of PRAISE for THE SPIRIT of HEAVINESS; That they may be called trees of righteousness, THE PLANTING of THE LORD, that HE MAY be GLORIFIED. AMEN (Isaiah 61:3)

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