Are You in Danger of Falling Away?
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As Jesus was preparing to go to the cross and recognizing that his time on this earth was coming to an end, He made this statement to his disciples.
It is exciting to talk about the blessings that come with following Jesus and the goodness that God shows toward us. It is not only exciting, but it is proper to do. However, if there is something we don’t like to talk about in the church today it is persecution. The truth is, the more you stand for Jesus, the greater the chance you will be persecuted. Quite honestly there are those who have no appetite or desire for that. Jesus clearly states that you will be hated because of him. He mentions this in Matthew and John. This hatred from the world will cause people to fall away from the faith and even turn on those who remain.
In the church today there are believers who will follow Jesus when there are miracles and blessings flowing. Why wouldn’t they because that is when faith is easy. For these folks, when hardships and persecution come, they are no longer interested and they turn their backs and run the other way. These people fall away because they have the wrong perspective of what the cost of following Christ really is. Sadly, I believe there are many who carry the name of Christ who, when the heat is turned up, will not stand. Let’s pray we will not be one of those.
The question you must ask yourself, and I must ask myself too, is do you have the right perspective of what the Christian life is all about? While there are great joys found in following Jesus, there will be hardships along the way as well. If you don’t recognize this, then when the persecution comes, because of Christ, you will fall away. Jesus didn’t hide this but made a bold declaration of this reality, and it is something we must never forget. As you can see, not understanding this can have devastating consequences.
There are two essentials necessary to keep you from falling away and they help to deal with both of these issues. The first one is found in the same discourse in John. Jesus gave us the reason we will be able to stand and endure until the end.
The difference between staying strong and falling away will be whose strength are you depending on. We can use Peter as our example. When he depended on his own strength, he denied Jesus. When he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he stood strong. This is how you will stand strong too, and there is no other way. If you will stay connected to the Holy Spirit and depend on Him to help you, you will stand. If you don’t then you run the risk of falling away.
The second way you will stand is found in the book of Timothy.
The only way you will be able to overcome deception is by knowing the truth. This means you must know the Word of God. In this day and age when you can turn on every form of media and hear someone talking about the Bible, you must know what it says. This is how you will be able to detect truth from error. This will be critical in helping ensure you are not drawn away.
Some things you read make you shout, and others make you think. Hopefully this will make you think. Jesus predicted a great falling away is going to happen, so we can count on it. What we must do is get ready and prepare ourselves so we don’t fall victim to it. After all this is why he told us in the first place.
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