Backward, not forward

But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.' Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. – Jeremiah 7.23-24

God says ‘obey my voice and I will be your God. Walk in my ways and it will be well with you.’ But these people would not do it. They followed their own hearts and they went backward, not forward, in their spiritual lives.

I am preaching through 1 Peter and a great theme there in chapter two is the importance of growth in our Christian lives. Our goal is always to be moving forward and onward.

Why then do we so often find ourselves slipping backward? Or why does it seem like we find the Christian life so dull and boring and we seeing ourselves becoming complacent about the word of God?

In truth it is because growing in Christ takes work. If we just stop paddling upstream we are always going to drift back downstream. Moving on takes effort, floating back requires nothing.

The word of God tells us that if we have tasted that the Lord is good, we ought to lay aside certain sins and then crave the word of God so that we can grow on to perfection. We are to constantly strive to move on to maturity. Our time is too precious to keep slipping back to where we were.

Forget those things that are behind. Press on to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.