Backsliding rarely begins with open rebellion towards God. It starts with neglect. When time in God’s Word becomes “optional” and occasional, and prayer fades into silence, the heart slowly grows distant.
What once was on fire becomes lukewarm, and what is lukewarm can quickly turn into ice. This is not just a spiritual “idea”. It’s reality and it has painful consequences.
The following story is a warning of what can happen when you neglect your relationship with Jesus.
My wife and I were both wonderfully saved by grace in 2016 and 2017. Although we were transformed by Christ, we neglected our spiritual lives, and this was the destruction that followed.
In January 2021, we went for our Honeymoon in Jeffreys Bay. There we fell into temptation, and I introduced my wife to drugs. Meth, to be exact, and it went downhill from there.
In August 2021, we moved out from under the watchful eyes of my in-laws to Paarl. We both became full-blown drug addicts. We were using drugs daily and before long it started showing in our everyday life.
I left my job because of paranoia in October 2021 and a month later my wife lost hers. We were left with no income. We started borrowing money from family to cover expenses such as rent and to support our habit. In March 2022 we moved to Somerset West where we found a nice apartment to rent with money we didn’t have.
For some reason we found favour from our landlord’s husband, and he gave both of us good paying jobs. Things were looking up for us again, but we still weren’t willing to leave meth and fighting constantly with each other and getting physical.
I had enough and one day wanted to drive off a cliff on the Steenbras Pass, just to end both our lives. We were cursing and shouting at each other. But something stopped me.
In December 2022 the company went bankrupt, and we were left unemployed and homeless. We lived in our car for 6 months doing anything and everything we could to make money for our growing Meth habit. That’s when we decided to sell our car.We ended up begging at robots for food and money, sleeping in half-built houses or in front of shops fearing for our lives on a daily basis.
And we refused to give up our love for meth.
This is what backsliding does. It doesn’t just affect your spiritual life. It touches every area: your peace, your relationships, your decisions, and your future.
What began as neglect opened the door to bondage. Sin promised relief but delivered destruction. The further we moved from God, the deeper we sank into darkness.
Backsliding blinds you. It convinces you that you are in control, even while everything is falling apart. It hardens your heart until even in suffering, you refuse to let go of what is destroying you.
That is the deception of sin. It keeps you longer than you intended, takes you further than you wanted to go, and costs you more than you were willing to pay. But there is hope! No matter how far you have fallen, Jesus still calls you back! He gives freedom!
The turning point begins with surrender. Not partial, not emotional. Complete and total surrender! Jesus said in John 3 that you must be born again. This is not just changing behaviour; it is becoming a new being through the Spirit of God.
And in Acts 2:38 the instruction is clear: repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Repentance means turning away from everything that pulled you from God. Fully and completely.
It means no longer holding on to sin, no longer justifying it, but laying it down. Baptism is an act of obedience, and being born again is the beginning of a restored relationship with Jesus Christ. Let this be a warning, but also an invitation.
Do not neglect your relationship with the Lord. Read your bible daily and pray without ceasing. Guard your heart. Because the path away from Him leads to destruction, but the way back to Him leads to life. (HEIN SWARTS) Contact: Hein Swarts at 060 729 9512 if you have any prayer requests.
Set apart…
I wrote the other day about surrender and submission. It was not an easy one to write, and if I’m honest, not an easy one to live either. I urge you to go back and read it.
Because what I am about to share now builds on that place. Surrender opens the hand. Submission keeps it open. But then there is something more. There is a life that follows surrender. A posture that follows submission. A calling that moves beyond moments into identity.
Being set apart. We often think of this as something gentle. Something poetic. Something reserved for a “certain kind” of believer.
But Scripture does not present it that way. To be set apart is to live a life of intense concentration on God’s point of view.
Not occasionally. Not when it suits us. But as a way of seeing. A way of thinking.
A way of being. It is when every part of you, your body, your soul, your spirit is gathered and aligned not scattered across a thousand competing desires, but held, focused, and devoted for the purposes of God alone. And here is the tension: This kind of life will feel like a narrowing. Fewer distractions. Fewer options. Fewer places to hide.
But at the very same time it will become the broadest life you have ever known. Because when your world becomes centered on God your capacity expands in ways you cannot manufacture.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Rom 12:2). Sanctification is not behavior management. It is transformation. It is the slow, and sometimes sudden realignment of everything within you to reflect the heart of God.
There is a deeper work, one that only God Himself can do. We call it entire sanctification. It is that personal, decisive act of God’s grace where something inside you begins to shift. The constant tension.
The inner resistance.
The pull between flesh and Spirit begins to lose its authority. This is not perfection. It is release. A heart no longer fueled by quiet rebellion, but awakened into wholehearted love. Love for God. Love for people. Not forced. Not performed. But flowing.
“For it is God who works in you, to will and to act according to His good purpose.” (Phil 2:13)
And here is where we must be honest. We cannot sanctify ourselves. No amount of discipline, structure, or self-effort can produce what only the Spirit can form.
Christ must not just be our Saviour, He must be our sanctification. Because holiness is not something we strive to reach.
It is something we receive and then live out.
We don’t work toward holiness.
We work from it. “To become holy, we must possess the Holy One.”It must be Christ in us.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2:20)
Consecration is the part where everything is laid down. And then we come to the part that costs. Full surrender. Not in theory.
Not in words. But in reality.
This is where surrender stops being a moment and becomes a lifestyle.
Every area of your life is laid down. Every plan released. Every hidden place opened.
“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice…” (Rom 12:1) And yes, there is a dying here. Because self does not leave quietly. There is a deep truth we don’t always want to face: As long as self remains at the center, Christ cannot fully take His place. As Andrew Murray wrote: “So long as I myself am still something, Jesus cannot be everything. When your life is cast out, God will fill you.”
And this is the mystery of the Kingdom: When you are empty, He fills you. When you release, He entrusts. When you surrender, power begins to flow. Not your power. His. Set Apart for Him.
So what does it really mean to be set apart?
It means your life is no longer your own. Not in a heavy way, but in a holy one.
It means your thoughts are no longer random, your choices no longer casual, your direction no longer self-led.
It means you live aware. Aware of His voice. His leading. His heart. It means you belong fully.
And maybe today this is not a message to analyse. Maybe it is a call to respond. Not to try harder. But to yield deeper.
To move beyond surrender, beyond submission and step into a life that is truly, set apart. (VICKY LUDICK)