I will heal their backsliding

O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. – Hosea 14.1-4

We have one more passage about the process and recovery from backsliding here. The first step of course is acknowledging our sin, getting back into the word of God, and turning to Him.

I remember my one serious backsliding time. It was the autumn of 1975 to the spring of 1976. I had been saved about 18 months when I went back to college in Pennsylvania and decided to hang out one night with a bunch of old friends. It started out innocently enough until they started passing around a bottle. I started drinking with them and it went downhill from there. I spent the next few months playing the hypocrite. I would party Friday and Saturday and find some way to get up and go to church on Sunday. I went many Sundays with a hangover and even did sign language interpretation with a headache.

All the while I knew what I was doing. I wasn’t reading my Bible, wasn’t praying, and was the epitome of a ‘Sunday Christian.’ I was coming back to my dorm one night and a friend said ‘Parrow, you better not ever preach that Jesus stuff to us again because now we know it’s not real to you.’

Boom.

That hit home and it was enough of a wake-up that I knew I had to get back on track. It was hard at first because I knew what I had been doing for months. I was ashamed. But I knew I had to go back to Him.

I admitted my sin, that was easy enough because it was so obvious. I repented and asked God to forgive me. And He was waiting there for me and with my repentance and confession He healed my backsliding and took me back into His arms.

God did just what He says He will do with backsliders come back to Him. Thank God for His healing power.