We are to be continuously transformed into His likeness! That is the walk; the race set before us. It requires both movement and direction. Unfortunately, we can get entangled in the things of this world and err in either our direction or our movement. Here are some examples.
We can be moving but in the wrong direction. This is typically referred to as backsliding. The commitment to God requires us to leave where we once were. We must leave the mire God found us in. When God sought to establish Abram, the Father of our faith, He made him leave where he was at:
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you."I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Genesis 12: 1-3
The world we were in when God called us is what we had to leave behind as well. Our country and people all had to be left behind as we entered into the kingdom of light. God could not use Abram in the land he was in and He cannot use us in the condition He found us in. In order for God to bless us and for us to then be a blessing for others, we must first leave where God called us from. And going back cannot be an option either:
As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Proverbs 26:11
Yet we can find ourselves moving in the wrong direction. There is an old adage that says if you feel like God is farther away from you than He once was turn around you are walking in the wrong direction! Once we come into the kingdom of light the darkness will start trying to draw us back. Our old habits and friends will keep popping up. But we cannot repeat our folly. We must be moving and moving toward God.
Secondly, we can find ourselves moving but with no
direction. We are not backsliding in the sense of a clear movement back to
where God found us but instead we can be walking in circles. This is what
typically happens when we have an area of our life that we have not turned over
completely to God. We think we can hide the sin, minimize it. But what starts
as a foothold for the enemy soon grows into a stronghold in our mind and we
find ourselves going around the same mountain time and again. Never able to
move forward only circling. The Old Testament tells a story of the sin of
Achan. The Israelites had experienced much success with God leading them; as we
will in our lives as well when we are first saved. But God instructed them to
not take any of the devoted items from the plunder. Similarly, God instructs us
on what we are to take part of and what we are to avoid. It is always for our
own well being but sometimes we simply do not listen. Achan did not listen
and took what he had been told not to. The result was
Achan replied, "It is true! I have sinned against the
LORD, the God of
