Did you know that one the main reasons that new converts fall back to their old sinful ways after coming to Christ have a lot to do with what they believe and feel is missing in the new way of life they have to lead?
The spiritual battle that sinners have found themselves in has been framed upon their sheer unwillingness to lose something deemed pleasurable and enjoyable they are so attached to in order to gain something else of eternal significance from God.
In a pre-conversion setting, sinners’ foremost concerns have to do with what they don’t want to abandon or sacrifice for the sake of Christ, which relates to what they don’t want to lose now.
In a post-conversion setting when considering going back to their old ways, it becomes all about what they feel has been missing that needs to be brought back in their lives.
The Typical Life Of Sinners
It’s important to say that those who haven’t known Christ Jesus yet are individuals who are living within their comfort zone.
They are simply living life according to the insatiable fleshly desires emanating out their sinful nature.
Therefore, acting out in accordance with these desires is something deemed both natural and normal to them.
And for quite many that take great pride in living in sin, that’s what defines them as whom they are as human beings.
They’ve identified themselves with their favorite sin of choice.
Deception Is Their Ways Of Life
Even though there’s no true and lasting peace, joy, and satisfaction in living outside God’s will, but sinners tend to feel great just as they are.
They feel comfortable within the realm of deception in which they are living, which gives them the freedom to do whatever they want.
They happen to find themselves in living in rebellion. They brag and boast about it.
Since they have yet to experience true and lasting satisfaction that only comes from God through Christ Jesus, the kind of life they are leading apparently provides them some form of satisfaction which they feel is all they need.
The devil through sin tries to mimic what true satisfaction is all about in order to blind them.
Even if something bad were to happen to them as a result, they wouldn’t be able to see it in the sense that this happens to them as a result of living life outside the will of God.
They would be more prone to see it as something that just happens that could have happened to anybody.
The Need To Bring Back Something Missing
What people are getting out of sin doesn’t only serve as a serious impediment for them to change their lives but as a powerful seductive force pulling them back to their old ways after repentance.
Some of the things that will play hard on new converts minds are as followed:
► The freedom to act out according to fleshly desires any time they once had.
► The kind of comfort, stimulation, and sustenance they used to find in their old ways.
► The instant gratification and relief they used to get, thus making them feel good.
Indulgence was like a crutch to them helping them to get through temptation by releasing the pressure and tension being exerted upon them mentally, emotionally, and physically.
It was a way of giving the flesh what it desperately wants.
The reality is that once the flesh has become overly reliant on a particular sinful pleasure, it will keep on generating more and more desires to keep feeding it.
Therefore, the flesh will always manifest desires toward such thing even after coming to Christ.
In addition to that, there’s something that sin does in the lives of sinners that literally places them in a situation of torment when thinking about how miserable life would be if they were to abandon their sinful lifestyles.
They don’t see how life would be possible without being able to indulge in their sins because sin does something for them which they think that they cannot afford to lose.
There’s something that will be felt missing in new converts, which is the pleasure of sin they used to enjoy that used to help them escape the pressuring reality of temptation.
That’s going to be the root of the struggles.
The Meaning Of Following Jesus
Following Jesus means that new converts have to conform their lives with the new way of life they’ve received through Christ.
This has to done mainly by coming out of the comfort zone of their old ways of life, which will ultimately lead to discomfort down to road.
They have to embrace the truth that only Jesus can fully satisfy the insatiable thirst that sinful desires generate in them by allowing Him to reign over their lives as Savior and Lord.
Living for Jesus is all about making adjustments. Everything that was connected to the old life must replaced by something else in order to fill the void.
So the very thing being felt missing tormenting their minds that will create more desires toward the pleasure of sin they used to enjoy must be replaced by the presence and power of God.
The Things That Will Potentially Lead To Backslide
The old ways still remain as a solid foundation for their lives, which then becomes an obstacle for them to adjust their lives to the Christian life.
Instant gratification from the old life being the heart of sinful pleasures still remains as something that they desperately need to quickly quench fleshly desires that will continue to manifest themselves.
Their desires are still locked up on something else besides Christ Jesus, which is the pleasure of sin relating to their old ways harassing the mind.
The realization that the satisfaction that comes from God doesn’t really fall in line with what their flesh wants.
That’s statement is super powerful.
Why is it so?
Because God’s satisfaction works on the basis of starving fleshly desires by resisting them. This is done by holding unto the truth of His Word until these desires fade away, which may take a while.
On the other hand, sinful satisfaction works on the basis of instant gratification, which brings instant relief. It’s all about what can done now to take care of sinful urges by making them go away as soon as possible.
Consequently, since they feel and believe that they cannot find what they’ve been getting out of their old ways in the new way of life, they will eventually go back to their old ways.
The Bottom Line
The ongoing struggles can be best summarized to what is missing, which will ultimately become an annoyance disturbing new converts from time to time.
Sin leaves an imprint behind on the soul in terms of weaknesses and inclination to go back that will take time to be rectified.
That weak and sensitive spot on the soul is what will sensitize or soften up people to go back.
This rectification that needs to happen perfectly fits with putting to death the flesh as God commands in (Romans 8:3).
This gets to happen through the ongoing process of sanctification.