👉🏼 (Reading: Jeremiah 3:14-25)

📜 ""Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.""
Jeremiah 3:14 (ESV)

📋 Can an employee work well without taking instructions from his or her manager? Why do people say they are serving God yet do not take instruction from him? Backsliding is falling away from godliness (faith).

This happens when our walk with God becomes a routine instead of a word-based relationship- faithless service. In that state, we can be acting in a spiritual vacuum. We must be abreast with God, and study his word to hear him speak to each step we take.

Our relationship with God must be kept and nourished to grow in faith. In Jeremiah's days, people strayed away from God while calling themselves the people of God. The Lord said, "Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness."' ... Jeremiah 3:22-23 (ESV). Faithlessness is emptiness. The Lord gave his Holy Spirit to enable us to relate with him in truth and Spirit.

Move from routine worship to an everyday relationship with God or you drift from away. In this state, we become dry and wonder why our Christian life is fruitless.

Learn to always return to God, to hear and be led by him.
Keep your faith and obedience so you do not backslide.

🔑 Key Lesson: We must beware not to backslide while busy 'doing church' without a relationship with God.

🛐 Meditation and Prayer: Lord, I have been busy while neglecting to strengthen my relationship with you. Help me to understand that your presence gives me life.

📚 Further Reading: 1 Peter 1:8-9.

◼️ The Bible in One Year: Luke 9-10.